Scheduling and module assignment for reducing BIST resources

Abstract

Built-in self-test (BIST) techniques modify functional hardware to give a data path the capability to test itself. The modification of data path registers into registers (BIST resources) that can generate pseudo-random test patterns and/or compress test responses, incurs an area overhead penalty. We show how scheduling and module assignment in high-level synthesis affect BIST resource requirements of a data path. A scheduling and module assignment procedure is presented that produces schedules which, when used to synthesize data paths, result in a significant reduction in BIST area overhead and hence total area.