Improving testability of non-scan designs during behavioral synthesis

Abstract

We present a behavioral synthesis method aimed at generating testable data paths. A non-scan testing strategy is targeted. Given performance and area constraints, the system is aimed at seeking among potential design alternatives the one presenting the least testability problems. The backbone of this methodology is a testability analysis method that works at different abstraction levels of the design description -from strictly behavioral domain to purely structural domain-. Considering a partially mapped behavioral specification, the testability analysis identifies the testability problems of the future structure. These problems are solved along the synthesis process, for example during the register allocation/binding task as presented in this paper.