一种基于数据总􀀂 线的测试结构

复用数据总线作为测试传输机构的测试结构可以大大减小可测性设计的面积开销。因此，提出了一种针对该结构的测试包设计新方法：通过对测试包中与测试传输机构相连的测试包单元和相连的测试包单元分别设计，使前者设计成可寻址的测试数据缓冲器，从而构建了一种复用数据总线作为测试传输机构的新测试结构。由此让该结构具备了硬件开销小，测试过程控制简单，可实现并行测试的优点。     

Test Scheduling of NoC‐Based SoCs Using Multiple Test Clocks

Network‐on‐chip (NoC) is an emerging design paradigm intended to cope with future systems‐on‐chips (SoCs) containing numerous built‐in cores. Since NoCs have some outstanding features regarding design complexity, timing, scalability, power dissipation and so on, widespread interest in this novel paradigm is likely to grow. The test strategy is a significant factor in the practicality and feasibility of NoC‐based SoCs. Among the existing test issues for NoC‐based SoCs, test access mechanism architecture and test scheduling particularly dominate the overall test performance. In this paper, we propose an efficient NoC‐based SoC test scheduling algorithm based on a rectangle packing approach used for current SoC tests. In order to adopt the rectangle packing solution, we designed specific methods and configurations for testing NoC‐based SoCs, such as test packet routing, test pattern generation, and absorption. Furthermore, we extended and improved the proposed algorithm using multiple test clocks. Experimental results using some ITC’02 benchmark circuits show that the proposed algorithm can reduce the overall test time by up to 55%, and 20% on average compared with previous works. In addition, the computation time of the algorithm is less than one second in most cases. Consequently, we expect the proposed scheduling algorithm to be a promising and competitive method for testing NoC‐based SoCs.     

A Framework for Configurable Joint-Scan Design-for-Test Architecture

Test time, test data volume, and test power have been a major concern in Serial Access Scan (SAS) based manufacturing test. Alternatively, the Random Access Scan (RAS) architecture has been proposed to mitigate some of these problems. However, some of the drawbacks, particularly the area and routing congestion of RAS puts a limit on its industry adoption. In this work, we propose a framework of a new scan architecture which we name as Joint-scan that aims to combine both the SAS and RAS to harness the best out of each of the architectures. The principle is to harness the advantage of the area from SAS architecture and the advantage of test power from RAS architecture. The other two parameters, test time and test data volume, are minimized by fine-tuning the proposed scan architecture. The architecture is also configurable to take the design constraints into consideration. Effectiveness of the architecture is experimentally demonstrated on the scaled ISCAS 89 circuits.

     

A Graph-Based Approach to Power-Constrained SOC Test Scheduling

The test scheduling problem is one of the major issues in the test integration of system-on-chip (SOC), and a test schedule is usually influenced by the test access mechanism (TAM). In this paper we propose a graph-based approach to power-constrained test scheduling, with TAM assignment and test conflicts also considered. By mapping a test schedule to a subgraph of the test compatibility graph, an interval graph recognition method can be used to determine the order of the core tests. We then present a heuristic algorithm that can effectively assign TAM wires to the cores, given the test order. With the help of the tabu search method and the test compatibility graph, the proposed algorithm allows rapid exploration of the solution space. Experimental results for the ITC02 benchmarks show that short test length is achieved within reasonable computation time.     

MTNet: Design of a Wireless Test Framework for Heterogeneous Nanometer Systems-on-Chip

The rapid migration to nanometer design processes has brought an unprecedented level of integration by allowing system designers to pack a wide variety of functionalities on-chip, namely, systems-on-a-chip (SoCs). In the meantime, electronic testing becomes an enabling technology for this SoC paradigm, since the integration of various core tests is a big challenge, and has revealed a widening gap between design and manufacturing. In particular, the increasing complexity and density of nanometer SoCs have led to the problem of visibility and accessibility in testing. In this paper, we propose an integrated wireless test framework to resolve the acerbated core accessibility problem and to eliminate the incompatibility between the existing SoC test strategies and the next generation billion-transistor SoC specification. Under such a test strategy, the intra-chip wireless links form the wireless test access mechanism (TAM) to transport test data chip-wide. We present a self-configurable multi-hop wireless test micronetwork, dubbed MTNet, with simple and efficient data transmission protocols, and develop a system level design-for-testability structure. Consequently, we propose a geographic routing algorithm to find the test access paths for the deeply embedded cores and a path driven test scheduling algorithm to design and integrate the MTNet-based SoC test access architecture. Extensive simulation study show the feasibility and applicability of MTNet.     

Test Wrapper and Test Access Mechanism Co-Optimization for System-on-Chip

Test access mechanisms (TAMs) and test wrappers are integral parts of a system-on-chip (SOC) test architecture. Prior research has concentrated on only one aspect of the TAM/wrapper design problem at a time, i.e., either optimizing the TAMs for a set of pre-designed wrappers, or optimizing the wrapper for a given TAM width. In this paper, we address a more general problem, that of carrying out TAM design and wrapper optimization in conjunction. We present an efficient algorithm to construct wrappers that reduce the testing time for cores. Our wrapper design algorithm improves on earlier approaches by also reducing the TAM width required to achieve these lower testing times. We present new mathematical models for TAM optimization that use the core testing time values calculated by our wrapper design algorithm. We further present a new enumerative method for TAM optimization that reduces execution time significantly when the number of TAMs being designed is small. Experimental results are presented for an academic SOC as well as an industrial SOC.     

Product-term-based synthesizable embedded programmable logic cores

As integrated circuits become increasingly complex, the ability to make post-fabrication changes will become more important and attractive. This capability can be realized by using programmable logic cores. Currently, such cores are available from vendors in the form of "hard" macro layouts. Previous work has suggested an alternative approach: vendors supply a synthesizable version of their programmable logic core and the integrated circuit designer synthesizes the programmable logic fabric using standard cells. Although this technique suffers increased delay, area, and power, the task of integrating such cores is far easier than the task of integrating "hard" cores into an ASIC or system-on-chip (SoC). When implementing a small amount of logic, this ease of use may be more important than the increased overhead. This paper presents a new family of architectures for these "synthesizable" cores; unlike previous architectures, which were based on lookup-tables (LUTs), the new family of architectures is based on a collection of product-term arrays. Compared to LUT-based architectures, the new architectures result in density improvements of 35% and speed improvements of 72% on standard benchmark circuits. The improvement is due to the inherent efficiency of product-term-based designs for small logic circuits. In addition, we describe novel ways of enhancing synthesizable architectures to support sequential logic. We show that directly embedding flip-flops as is done in stand-alone programmable cores will not suffice. Consequently, we present two novel architectures employing our solution and optimize and compare them. Finally, we describe a proof-of-concept layout employing one of our proposed architectures.     

An Integrated Approach to Testing Embedded Cores and Interconnects Using Test Access Mechanism (TAM) Switch

The present paper introduces a new strategy for testing embedded cores using Test Access Mechanism (TAM) switches. An algorithm has been proposed for testing the cores using the TAM switch architecture. In addition, a scheme for testing the interconnections between cores in parallel is also presented. Experiments have been carried out on several synthetic SOC benchmarks. Results show significant optimization of area overhead as well as test time.     

系统芯片的可测性设计

系统芯片SoC可以实现一个系统的功能,为了保证系统芯片的功能正确性与可靠性,在它的设计与制造的多个阶段必需进行测试。由于系统芯片的集成度高,结构和连接关系复杂,使得对它进行测试的难度越来越大,因此需要采用专门的测试结构。本文对系统芯片的可测性设计以及测试结构的设计方法等进行了介绍和综述。     

基于云进化算法的NoC测试规划

针对NoC测试时,如何在功耗限制下利用有限的片上资源最大化并行测试,以优化NoC测试时间的问题,文中提出一种利用云进化算法进行测试规划的方法,可以有效提高测试效率。该方法复用NoC的片上资源作为TAM,采用非抢占式测试和XY路由方式,通过云进化算法优化待测IP核在各条TAM上的分配方式寻找最佳方案。在ITC'02标准电路上的实验结果表明,该方法有效降低了测试时间,提高了测试效率。     

TAPES—Trace-based architecture performance evaluation with SystemC

The design of today’s System-on-Chip (SoC) architectures faces many challenges in respect to the involved complexity and heterogeneity. An early and systematic exploration of alternatives is mandatory to find a solution that meets all design requirements. Therefore, the experience of system architects has to be supplemented with efficient performance evaluation methods and tools that help in the broad exploration of the solution space. This article describes TAPES (Trace-based Architecture Performance Evaluation with SystemC), an approach that supports system designers in the performance evaluation of SoC architectures. The concept captures the functionality of the architecture in the form of traces for each resource. The trace primitives making up a trace are translated at simulation run-time into transactions and superposed on the system architecture. The method uses SystemC as modeling language, requires low modeling effort and yet provides accurate results within reasonable turnaround times. A concluding application example for the exploration of a network processor architecture demonstrates the effectiveness of the TAPES approach.     

A New Multi‐site Test for System‐on‐Chip Using Multi‐site Star Test Architecture

As the system‐on‐chip (SoC) design becomes more complex, the test costs are increasing. One of the main obstacles of a test cost reduction is the limited number of test channels of the ATE while the number of pins in the design increases. To overcome this problem, a new test architecture using a channel sharing compliant with IEEE Standard 1149.1 and 1500 is proposed. It can significantly reduce the pin count for testing a SoC design. The test input data is transmitted using a test access mechanism composed of only input pins. A single test data output pin is used to measure the sink values. The experimental results show that the proposed architecture not only increases the number of sites to be tested simultaneously, but also reduces the test time. In addition, the yield loss owing to the proven contact problems can be reduced. Using the new architecture, it is possible to achieve a large test time and cost reduction for complex SoC designs with negligible design and test overheads.     

IPRM: IP core resource multiplexing of core wrapper design for reducing test application time in DVFS-based multicore SoCs

A modify wrapper/test access mechanism(TAM) structure is described to explore the maximal potential capacity of TAM, named “IP cores resource multiplexing(IPRM)”, reducing test application time for DVFS-based multicore System-on-Chips(MSoCs). The IPRM core wrappers, different from standard wrappers, enable to isolated core wrapper resource again to store test data for embedded cores under test. An integer linear programming (ILP) formulation with IPRM wrapper is proposed to improve multi-site test. Experimental results of the ITC’02 SoC Benchmark show that IPRM core wrapper reduces the burdens on ATE effectively, and can reduce the test application time by 10–50%.     

Thermal-aware test scheduling using network-on-chip under multiple clock rates

The increasing trend in the number of cores on a single chip has led to scalability and bandwidth issues in bus-based communication. Network-on-chip (NoC) techniques have emerged as a solution that provides a much needed flexibility and scalability in the era of multi-cores. This article presents an optimal integer linear programming (ILP) formulation and a simulated annealing (SA) solution to thermal and power-aware test scheduling of cores in an NoC-based SoC using multiple clock rates. The methods have been implemented and results on various benchmarks are presented.     

A System-layer Infrastructure for SoC Diagnosis

During IC manufacturing phase, discriminating between good and faulty chips is not enough. In fact, especially in the first phase of the production of a new device, a complete understanding of the possible failures is quickly required to ramp up production yield. For test engineers, dealing with the manufacturing test of Systems-on-chip (SoCs) means to tackle the extraction of diagnostic data from faulty chips. Another equally important aim of diagnosis, in a later step of a product lifecycle, is to find the real root cause of silicon misbehaviors for field returns. At the core test layer, the adoption of diagnosis-oriented Design-for-Testability structures is almost mandatory and many solutions have been worked out for several types of cores; diagnosis data retrieval often consists in the execution of a set of self-test procedures whose application order and/or customization may depend on the obtained results themselves. This paper details the characteristics of a system-layer test architecture able to manage efficiently SoC self-diagnostic procedures. This architecture is composed of a diagnosis-oriented Test Access Mechanism (TAM) and an Infrastructure-IP owning enough intelligence to automatically manage core diagnostic procedures. Both of them have been designed in compliance with the IEEE 1500 Standard for Embedded Core Test and exploit the characteristics of Self-Test structures inserted for the diagnosis of memory, processor and logic cores. This approach to SoC diagnosis minimizes ATE memory requirements for pattern storage and drastically speeds up the complete execution of diagnostic procedures. Experimental results highlight the convenience of the approach with respect to alternative ATE driven diagnosis procedures, while resorting to negligible area overhead.

Linear-programming-based techniques for synthesis of network-on-chip architectures

Application-specific system-on-chip (SoC) design offers the opportunity for incorporating custom network-on-chip (NoC) architectures that are more suitable for a particular application, and do not necessarily conform to regular topologies. This paper presents novel mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulations for synthesis of custom NoC architectures. The optimization objective of the techniques is to minimize the power consumption subject to the performance constraints. We present a two-stage approach for solving the custom NoC synthesis problem. The power consumption of the NoC architecture is determined by both the physical links and routers. The power consumption of a physical link is dependent upon the length of the link, which in turn, is governed by the layout of the SoC. Therefore, in the first stage, we address the floorplanning problem that determines the locations of the various cores and the routers. In the second stage, we utilize the floorplan from the first stage to generate topology of the NoC and the routes for the various traffic traces. We also present a clustering-based heuristic technique for the second stage to reduce the run times of the MILP formulation. We analyze the quality of the results and solution times of the proposed techniques by extensive experimentation with realistic benchmarks and comparisons with regular mesh-based NoC architectures.     

Modular and rapid testing of SOCs with unwrapped logic blocks

Extensive research has been carried out for test planning of core-based system-on-a-chip devices. Most of the prior work assumes that all of the embedded cores are wrapped for test purpose. However, some designs may contain user-defined logic or cores that cannot be wrapped due to area constraints or timing violations. This paper discusses how these unwrapped logic blocks can be tested rapidly by adapting the TestRail architecture, which uses only the test control mechanism and the test instructions available through the IEEE 1500 standard for embedded core test. A new test scheduling algorithm, which facilitates a concurrent test of both unwrapped logic blocks and IEEE 1500-wrapped cores, is proposed, and experiments show that it outperforms a previous approach when the available number of tester channels and/or the number of unwrapped logic blocks are small.     

Test infrastructure design for mixed-signal SOCs with wrapped analog cores

Many system-on-chips (SOCs) today contain both digital- and analog-embedded cores. Even though the test cost for such mixed-signal SOCs is significantly higher than that for digital SOCs, most prior research in this area has focused exclusively on digital cores. We propose a low-cost test development methodology for mixed-signal SOCs that allows the analog and digital cores to be tested in a unified manner, thereby minimizing the overall test cost. The analog cores in the SOC are wrapped such that they can be accessed using a digital test access mechanism (TAM). We evaluate the impact of the use of analog test wrappers on area overhead and test time. To reduce area overhead, we present an analog test wrapper optimization technique, which is then combined with TAM optimization in a cost-oriented heuristic approach for test scheduling. We also demonstrate the feasibility of using analog wrappers by presenting transistor-level simulations for an analog wrapper and a representative core. We present experimental results for three SOCs from the ITC '02 test benchmarks that have been augmented with three analog cores: an I-Q transmit path pair and an audio CODEC path used in cellular phone applications.