This paper presents a design-for consecutive- transparency method that makes a soft core (RTL description) consecutively transparent using integer linear programming. Consecutive transparency of a core guarantees consecutive propagation of arbitrary test/response sequences from the core inputs to the core outputs with some latency. Therefore, it is possible to apply/observe arbitrary test/response sequences to/from an embedded core consecutively at the speed of system clock by using interconnects and consecutively transparent cores in an SoC. Experimental results showthat the proposed method introduces lower area overhead compared to the bypass method that adds direct paths from PIs to POs with multiplexers.
Index Terms:
design for testability, system-on a chip, test access mechanism, consecutive transparency, consecutive testability, register transfer level
Citation:
Tomokazu Yoneda, Hideo Fujiwara, "Design for Consecutive Transparency of Cores in System-on-a-Chip," vts, pp.287, 21st IEEE VLSI Test Symposium, 2003