http://user.it.uu.se/~jarst116/slides/week4.pdf

Graph-Based Algorithms for Boolean Function Manipulation

This paper presents a novel test-data volume-compression methodology called the embedded deterministic test (EDT), which reduces manufacturing test cost by providing one to two orders of magnitude reduction in scan test data volume and scan test time. The presented scheme is widely applicable and easy to deploy because it is based on the standard scan/ATPG methodology and adopts a very simple flow. It is nonintrusive as it does not require any modifications to the core logic such as the insertion of test points or logic bounding unknown states. The EDT scheme consists of logic embedded on a chip and a new deterministic test-pattern generation technique. The main contributions of the paper are test-stimuli compression schemes that allow us to deliver test data to the on-chip continuous-flow decompressor. In particular, it can be done by repeating certain patterns at the rates, which are adjusted to the requirements of the test cubes. Experimental results show that for industrial circuits with test cubes with very low fill rates, ranging from 3% to 0.2%, these schemes result in compression ratios of 30 to 500 times. A comprehensive analysis of the encoding efficiency of the proposed compression schemes is also provided.

Embedded deterministic test

VLSI Test Principles and Architectures: Design for Testability (Systems on Silicon)

Test data compression consists of test vector compression on the input side and response, compaction on the output side This vector compression has been an active area of research This article summarizes and categories these techniques The focus is on hardware-based test vector compression techniques for scan architectures Test vector compression schemes fall broadly into three categories: code-based schemes use data compression codes to encode test cubes; linear-decompression-based schemes decompress the data using only linear operations (that is LFSRs and XOR networks) and broadcast-scan-based schemes rely on broadcasting the same values to multiple scan chains

https://users.ece.utexas.edu/~touba/research/dt06.pdf

Survey of Test Vector Compression Techniques

A system includes a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes a first single crystal silicon layer comprising first transistors, first alignment marks, and at least one metal layer overlying the first single crystal silicon layer, wherein the at least one metal layer comprises copper or aluminum more than other materials; and a second single crystal silicon layer overlying the at least one metal layer. The second single crystal silicon layer comprises a plurality of second transistors arranged in substantially parallel bands. Each of a plurality of the bands comprises a portion of the second transistors along an axis in a repeating pattern.

System comprising a semiconductor device and structure

In contrast to pre-silicon verification environments, insystem validation is not strongly constrained by the number of stimuli that can be applied; rather, the quality of the patterns, as well as the observation of the events of interest are the real concern. This paper motivates the need for developing structured methods for porting the controllability aspects of pre-silicon verification into post-silicon validation environments. Use cases and challenges for such methods are outlined.

On-chip stimuli generation for post-silicon validation

This paper addresses the testability problems raised by intellectual property cores with multiple clock domains. The proposed solution is based on a novel core wrapper architecture and a new wrapper design algorithm. It is shown how multifrequency at-speed test response capture can be achieved via the design of capture windows without any structural modifications to the logic within the embedded core. The new features in the core wrapper architecture, which introduce limited hardware overhead, can also synchronize the external tester channels with the core's internal scan chains in the shift mode. Thus, the wrapper implementation space can be explored in order to efficiently utilize the available tester bandwidth while meeting the constraints on the maximum internal shift frequency that guarantees low testing time within the given power ratings. Using experimental data, the benefits of the proposed solution are demonstrated by analyzing the tradeoffs between the number of tester channels, testing time, area overhead, and power dissipation.

/pdf/wrapper-design-for-multifrequency-ip-cores-52ciasvdal.pdf

Wrapper design for multifrequency IP cores

In this work, a new hardware-based parallel implementation of the iterative conjugate gradient (CG) algorithm for solving such systems of equations is proposed. Fixed point computations are employed to optimize hardware resource usage and to increase parallelism. The proposed implementation adaptively adjusts to variations in the dynamic range of data operands in order to enhance computation accuracy and avoid divergence due to overflow and quantization errors.

Hardware-based parallel computing for real-time haptic rendering of deformable objects

In this paper we observe that the necessary amount of compressed test data transferred from the tester to the embedded cores in a system-on-a-chip (SOC) varies significantly during the testing process. This motivates a novel approach to compressed system-on-a-chip testing based on time-multiplexing the tester channels. It is shown how the introduction of a few control channels will enable the sharing of data channels, on which compressed seeds are passed to every embedded core. Through the use of modular and scalable hardware for on-chip test control and test data decompression, we define a new algorithmic framework for test data compression that is applicable to system-on-a-chip devices comprising intellectual property-protected blocks.

Time-Multiplexed Compressed Test of SOC Designs

The ubiquity of embedded systems of increasing complexity in domains like scientific computing requires computation on models whose complexity has grown beyond what is economical to manage purely in software to requiring hardware acceleration - a key part of which is selecting numerical data representations (bit-width allocation). To address the shortcomings of existing techniques when applied to scientific computing dataflows, we propose a methodology for determining custom hybrid fixed/floating-point data representations for iterative scientific computing applications.

Nicola Nicolici

Papers

On-chip stimuli generation for post-silicon validation

Wrapper design for multifrequency IP cores

Hardware-based parallel computing for real-time haptic rendering of deformable objects

Time-Multiplexed Compressed Test of SOC Designs

Robust design methods for hardware accelerators for iterative algorithms in scientific computing