For a vast majority of production VLSI designs, the synthesis pipeline is interrupted and technology mapping is performed manually. Here, designers map functional specifications directly onto a more richer set of library blocks that include counters and registers. Typically, these blocks have more than one memory element. The scan version of such a block has all flip-flops chained into a shift register during test mode. For such designs, we show that existing partial scan selection methods may produce sub-optimal solutions. We then propose a new method of selecting scan flip-flops in mapped designs. Our algorithm is based on a new formulation that models the presence of multiple memory elements in a library block and also takes into account both area and performance penalties of scan. We also extend a recently proposed integer linear program (ILP) formulation. A graph transformation that was effective in solving the scan selection problem for large synthesized (or unmapped) designs is shown to be inapplicable for mapped designs. We then develop a new transformation that provably preserves optimum solutions for these mapped designs. Experimental results on three production VLSI circuits having 12,000 to over 50,000 gates are reported.
Index Terms:
VLSI; integrated circuit design; logic CAD; circuit CAD; flip-flops; design for testability; graph theory; integer programming; linear programming; integrated logic circuits; logic design; partial scan design; technology mapped circuits; VLSI design; functional specifications; scan flip-flops selection; multiple memory elements; library block; integer linear program formulation; production VLSI circuits
Citation:
A. Balakrishnan, S.T. Chakradhar, "Partial scan design for technology mapped circuits," vlsid, pp.283, 8th International Conference on VLSI Design, 1995