A practical approach to instruction-based test generation for functional modules of VLSI processors

This paper presents a practical approach to functional test pattern generation for gate level faults in functional modules of VLSI processors. Test patterns are generated by constrained test generation and translated to functional test patterns, each of which is a sequence of instructions. In this paper, the outline of instruction-based test generation system, ALPS, is given first, and then constrained test generation is described in detail. Finally, the result of practical application to a VLSI processor is given to illustrate the effectiveness of our approach.