Abstract
In this paper, a technique is presented for selecting signals to observe during silicon debug. Internal signals are used to analyze, understand, and debug circuit misbehavior. An automated procedure to select which signals to observe is proposed to facilitate early detection of circuit malfunction and to enhance the utilization of hardware resources for storage. Signals that are most often sensitized to possible errors are observed in sequential circuits. Given a functional input vector set, an error transmission matrix is generated by analyzing which flip-flops are sensitized to other flip-flops. Relatively independent flip-flops are identified and a set of signals that maximally cover the possible error sites with given constraints are identified through integer linear programming. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can rapidly and precisely identify the nonconforming chip behavior and thereby can speed up the post-silicon debug process.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 6152784 |
| Pages (from-to) | 442-446 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 Mar |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Manuscript received June 28, 2011; accepted September 6, 2011. Date of current version February 17, 2012. This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation, under Grant CCF-0916837. Date of current version February 17, 2012. This paper was recommended by Associate Editor S. S. Sapatnekar.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Software
- Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering