Diagnostic apparatus, control unit, integrated circuit, vehicle and method of recording diagnostic data

1. A diagnostic apparatus for monitoring a parameter of an integrated circuit, the apparatus comprising:

a diagnostic data buffer constituting a volatile memory;

a non-volatile memory capable of receiving data from the diagnostic data buffer;

a data buffer controller operably coupled to the diagnostic data buffer and having an event alert input and a data channel monitoring input for receiving diagnostic data;

a buffer status memory comprising a state indicative of a protected status and a state indicative of an unprotected status; and

a data transfer controller; wherein

the diagnostic data buffer receives, when the state of the buffer status memory is indicative of the unprotected state, at least part of the diagnostic data received by the data buffer controller via the data channel monitoring input thereof;

the data buffer controller sets the state of the buffer status memory to be indicative of the protected state in response to receipt of an event alert received via the event alert input; and

the data transfer controller monitors, when in use, the buffer status memory and copies a portion of the diagnostic data buffer to the non-volatile memory for subsequent analysis in response to the buffer status memory being set to be indicative of the protected state, wherein the data buffer controller is arranged to prevent transfer of the at least part of the diagnostic data to the diagnostic data buffer when the buffer status memory is in the protected state.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the data buffer controller is protects the diagnostic data buffer in response to receipt of the event alert so as to prevent data loss by the diagnostic data buffer.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the data transfer controller unprotects the diagnostic data buffer upon completion of copying of the portion of the diagnostic data buffer to the non-volatile memory.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the data transfer controller sets the state of the buffer status memory to be indicative of the unprotected state upon completion of copying the portion of the diagnostic data buffer to the non-volatile memory.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the diagnostic data buffer comprises a FIFO buffer.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the FIFO buffer is circular.

7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the diagnostic data buffer comprises more than one FIFO buffer.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the event alert is an alert that a parameter of a functional component of an integrated circuit is outside a predetermined specification.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the event alert is an alert concerning the occurrence of a safety event when the apparatus is operating in accordance with the ISO 26262 standard.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the parameter of the functional component of the integrated circuit is a safety-related parameter and the predetermined specification relates to a safety state when the apparatus is operating in accordance with the ISO 26262 standard.

11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the parameter is at least one of:

temperature, voltage, clock frequency, memory status, lock-step adherence, a software watchdog trigger, a phase locked loop lock, a Joint Test Action Group controller status, a Built In Self Test error, a Direct Memory Access error, a flash or digital memory error, Test Control Unit errors, a logic self-test error, a reset, a clock range breach error, an analogue-to-digital converter error and/or a Motor Control clock domain error.

12. An electronic control unit comprising the diagnostic apparatus as claimed in claim 1 .

13. A control unit as claimed in claim 12 , further comprising a functional component to be monitored operably coupled to the data buffer controller, the function component generating, when in use, the diagnostic data to be monitored.

14. A control unit as claimed in claim 13 , further comprising a fault detection module operably coupled to the event alert input of the data buffer controller, wherein the fault detection module receives, when in use, the diagnostic data to be monitored and comprises a trace analyser and diagnostic logic in order to detect the parameter of the functional component being outside of the predetermined specification.

15. A method of recording diagnostic data, the method comprising:

a data buffer controller receiving data to be monitored and communicating at least part of the data to be monitored to a diagnostic data buffer for temporary storage;

the data buffer controller receiving an event alert and setting a state of a buffer status memory to be indicative of a protected state of the diagnostic data buffer in response to receipt of the event alert, wherein the data buffer controller is arranged to prevent transfer of the at least part of the diagnostic data to the diagnostic data buffer when the buffer status memory is in the protected state; and

a data transfer controller monitoring the buffer status memory and copying a portion of the diagnostic data buffer to a non-volatile memory for subsequent analysis in response to the buffer status memory being set to be indicative of the protected state of the diagnostic data buffer.

16. An integrated circuit comprising the diagnostic apparatus as claimed in claim 1 .

17. A vehicle comprising the diagnostic apparatus as claimed in claim 1 .