INCREDYBLE: A new search strategy for design automation problems with applications to testing

Abstract

A new search strategy for design automation problems is proposed, that is directly applicable to circuits having a size parameter (e.g., operand size), and indirectly, to random-logic circuits as well. Under the proposed approach, exhaustive search for an optimal solution is performed for small versions of the target circuit, obtained by scaling-down all the size parameters of the circuit (e.g., by reducing the operand size). The optimal solutions obtained for the small circuits are studied, and analytic rules are derived to capture their common features. Using these rules, the solutions are scaled-up into a high-quality solution for the large target circuit. The method, its feasibility and limitations are described in this work. The method is applied to two problems related to testing of digital circuits, namely, test generation for stuck-at faults and test generation for path delay faults.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>