Work

Poulpe: a software-hardware toolchain to clone legacy digital circuit boards

Year: 2026

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: There is today a vast installed base of legacy computing systems, that heavily rely on integrated circuits of medium-scale integration used since the 1970s, mounted on circuit boards. In industrial applications, some of these systems have been maintained for decades with small-scale repairs, retrofits and adaptations. To support and extend such existing forms of sustainable computing, we propose the Poulpe circuit-board reverse-engineering and cloning tool. The Poulpe toolset comprises a hardware test apparatus that performs non-destructive measurements using batched continuity testing on legacy printed circuit boards. A software component then uses the measurements obtained to build an electric-level netlist of the connections through the circuit board, and processes it further into a logic-level netlist that captures the behavior of the original circuit. The circuit obtained can be exported to industry-standard formats, to either re-design the circuit board, or re-synthesize an integrated circuit equivalent.

Source: ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers: Workshops and Special Sessions (CF Companion)

DOI: 10.1145/3801488.3807892

Author: Caroline Collange

Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique, Institut de Recherche en Informatique et Systèmes Aléatoires, Université de Rennes

Language: English

Topic: VLSI and FPGA Design Techniques

Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: hybrid

OpenAlex ID: W7155049689

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