Testing Workshop Research Articles

Proficiency testing workshop – a key triennial event

Proficiency testing workshop – a key triennial event

East-West Design&Test Workshop

This report discusses the 2006 IEEE East-West Design & Test International Workshop, held 15 to 19 September 2006 in Sochi, Russia. The goal of the workshop was to exchange experience in design and test of electronic systems among scientific experts from Eastern and Western Europe, as well as other parts of the world.

2006 Latin American Test Workshop

The author presents highlights from the 7th Annual IEEE Latin American Test Workshop (LATW '06), held in the capital city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 26-29 March.

Results of the 2005 paternity testing workshop of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society of Forensic Genetics

We present the results of the 2005 paternity testing workshop of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society of Forensic Genetics. Blood samples from an alleged father, two children and a mother were sent to the participating laboratories. The participants were encouraged to treat the case as a paternity case, and also to consider other family relationships. A total of 62 laboratories reported results. The laboratories used a total of 42 autosomal STRs/PCR-investigated VNTRs, 22 Y-chromosomal STRs, 8 X-chromosomal STRs and 8 VNTR systems investigated with RFLP. The rate of typing and reporting errors was 0.3%. The results from a paper challenge showed that some of the rare events were treated differently in the participating laboratories.

Guest Editor's Introduction to the Special Section on Simulation-Based Design Validation

THE IEEE High Level Design Validation and Test (HLDVT) Workshop was originally established to act as a focal point for research in verification and simulation. This special section on simulation-based design validation is based on the best papers in the Proceedings of HLDVT 2005. The focus areas of HLDVT are well represented by the papers in this special section, including formal verification and simulation-based functional verification research. Several papers in this special section focus on functional test generation, the process of generating test sequences for use during simulation. Boolean satisfiability is a fundamental solving technique which is applied to a wide range of design automation problems, including automatic test generation and model checking. An extension to SAT solving theory is presented in “B-Cubing: New Possibilities for Efficient SAT-Solving” by Domagoj Babi c, Jesse Bingham, and Alan J. Hu, which generalizes the supercubing framework presented in earlier work. This paper proves the correctness of the proposed B-cubing technique using a new construct created for that purpose, the obligation-certification tree. “A New Simulation-Based Property Checking Algorithm Based on Partitioned Alternative Search Space Traversal” by Qingwei Wu and Michael S. Hsiao describes a test generation tool which is used to search for violations of safety properties. A genetic algorithm is used to generate test sequences, together with a Boolean constraint propagation engine which reduces the search space. “SimulationBased Functional Test Generation for Embedded Processors” by Charles H.-P. Wen, Li-C. Wang, and Kwang-Ting Cheng presents a functional test generation technique which uses simulation results to reduce the complexity of the search process. When test generation is performed for a component under test, the justification process must involve many additional surrounding components which are involved in fault activation and propagation. The technique presented in this paper simulates surrounding components and uses machine learning to generate a “functional mapping” which represents the inverse function of the component and is used during justification. The functional mapping is approximate, but it enables an efficient solution to the justification problem. In the paper “Harnessing Machine Learning to Improve the Success Rate of Stimuli Generation” by Shai Fine, Ari Freund, Itai Jaeger, Yishay Mansour, Yehuda Naveh, and Avi Ziv, researchers apply learning theory to establish a relationship between the start state of the search process and the success rate of test generation. The choice of start state is important because it has a strong impact on search complexity. Once a design error has been revealed by simulation, there remains the task of identifying the source cause of the error by examining the error trace. In the paper “An Optimum Algorithm for Compacting Error Traces for Efficient Design Error Debugging” by Chian-Chih Yen and Jing-Yang Jou, a technique is presented to reduce the length of an existing error trace in order to make it more easy to understand and examine. Two heuristics are presented to modify the detecting input sequence to reach the same error detecting state with fewer state machine transitions. The functional verification process often depends on the use of coverage metrics to evaluate the completeness of the verification process. Coverage metrics define a set of coverage events whose occurrence during testing is required to reveal design errors. The paper “Advanced Analysis Techniques for Cross-Product Coverage” by Hezi Azatchi, Laurent Fournier, Eitan Marcus, Shmuel Ur, Avi Ziv, and Keren Zohar evaluates the use of crossproduct coverage metrics which combine to monitor the occurrence of events which are defined by the cross-product of two or more sets of independent coverage events. The paper explores the relationship between a variety of crossproduct coverage techniques and the quality of verification. Two of the papers in the special section address the verification of essential but nontraditional aspects of design correctness. “Multilevel Design Validation in a Secure Embedded System” by Parick Schaumont, David Hwang, Shenglin Yang, and Ingrid Verbauwhede describes a simulation-based methodology to validate the security properties of an embedded system. The approach seeks to identify leaks of critical information at all multiple abstraction levels, from the software algorithms down to the microarchitecture. A cycle-accurate cosimulation platform is presented which supports the validation process. “Validating Families of Latency Insensitive Protocols” by Syed Suhaib, Deepak Mathaikutty, David Berner, and Sandeep Shukla presents both simulation-based and formal techniques to validate system correctness with respect to latency. The difficulty of transmitting a low-skew clock over an entire chip has motivated the development of latency insensitive protocols which enable asynchronous communication. This paper presents techniques to verify that a latency insensitive system is “latency equivalent” to a completely synchronous version of the system. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS, VOL. 55, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2006 1313

2005 IEEE East-West Design and Test Workshop

The 3rd IEEE East-West Design and Test Workshop (EWDTW 2005) took place from 15 to 19 September in Odessa, Ukraine. The workshop's goal was for scientific schools and experts in Eastern and Western Europe (as well as other parts of the world) to exchange experiences in the design and test of electronic systems. Researchers from western countries presented an overview of design-and-test trends. André Ivanov gave a tutorial on network-on-chip design and test, and Yervant Zorian gave a tutorial on design for yield and reliability. Participants from Intel presented the invited talk, "Research at Intel's Strategic CAD Labs," which gave an overview of CAD research preformed at Intel's laboratories.

Advances in model-based software testing (A-MOST)

This is a summary of the Advances in Model-Based Software Testing (A-MOST) workshop held on May 15-16, 2005, in St. Louis, Missouri. The workshop had approximately 40 participants. The goals of this workshop were to offer a comprehensive overview of model-based testing to the ICSE community, and bring the researchers and practitioners together to discuss advances, applications, and the complex problems yet to be solved in model-based testing. The workshop was lively and maintained participant interest for the entire two-day program. A brief summary based upon agenda items is provided. Details on the workshops are archived at http://aetgweb.argreenhouse.com.

Test of switched-capacitor ladder filters using OBT

In this paper, a way to test switched-capacitors ladder filters by means of Oscillation-Based Test (OBT) methodology is proposed. Third-order low-pass Butterworth and Elliptic filters are considered in order to prove the feasibility of the proposed approach. A topology with a non-linear element in an additional feedback loop is employed for converting the Circuit Under Test (CUT) into an oscillator. The idea is inspired in some author's previous works (G. Huertas, D. Vázquez, A. Rueda, J.L. Huertas, Oscillation-based Test Experiments in Filters: a DTMF example, in: Proceedings of the International Mixed-Signal Testing Workshop (IMSTW'99), British Columbia, Canada, 1999, pp. 249–254; G. Huertas, D. Vazquez, E. Peralías, A. Rueda, J.L. Huertas, Oscillation-based test in oversampling A/D converters, Microelectronic Journal 33(10) (2002) 799–806; G. Huertas, D. Vázquez, E. Peralías, A. Rueda. J.L. Huertas, Oscillation-based test in bandpass oversampled A/D converters, in: Proceedings of the International Mixed-Signal Test Workshop, June 2002, Montreaux (Switzerland), pp. 39–48; G. Huertas, D. Vázquez, A. Rueda, J.L. Huertas, Practical oscillation-based test of integrated filters, IEEE Design and Test of Computers 19(6) (2002) 64–72; G. Huertas, D. Vázquez, E. Peralías, A. Rueda, J.L. Huertas, Testing mixed-signal cores: practical oscillation-based test in an analog macrocell, IEEE Design and Test of Computers 19(6) (2002) 73–82). Two methods are used, the describing function approach for the treatment of the non linearity and the root-locus method for analysing the circuit and predicting the oscillation frequency and the oscillation amplitude. In order to establish the accuracy of these predictions, the oscillators have been implemented in SWITCAP (K. Suyama, S.C. Fang, Users' Manual for SWITCAP2 Version 1.1, Columbia University, New York, 1992). Results of a catastrophic fault injection in switches and capacitors of the filter structure are reported. A specification-driven fault list for capacitors is also defined based on the sensitivity analysis. The ability of OBT for detecting this kind of faults is presented.

Adding value to design and test through education: What are the challenges?

THE 6TH IEEE Latin American Test Workshop (LATW 05), took place from 30 March to 2 April 2005 in Salvador, Brazil. The workshop included a panel discussion on the challenges for modern design and test education, which attracted much attention from the audience.

Results of the 2003 paternity testing workshop of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society of Forensic Genetics

We present the results of the 2003 paternity testing workshop of the English Speaking Working Group (ESWG) of the International Society of Forensic Genetics (ISFG). The scenario was an alleged father, one child and the mother. All 51 participating laboratories drew the correct conclusion. The laboratories used a total of 30 autosomal and 17 Y-chromosomal PCR-based STR systems and 7 RFLP-based VNTR systems. The percentage of typing errors was 0.12% for the autosomal systems and 2% for the Y-chromosomal systems. The results from a paper challenge showed that occurrences of rare events such as mutations and possible silent alleles were treated differently among the participating laboratories. Participating laboratories reported mutational events observed in STR systems. Considerable differences between mutation rates in STR loci were reported. There were marked differences between paternal and maternal mutation rates as well as between single-step and multiple-step mutation rates.

Southwest Test Workshop 2004 [Conference Reports

Southwest Test Workshop 2004 [Conference Reports

Allied health skin testing workshop

Allied health skin testing workshop

Results of the 2001 paternity testing workshop of the English speaking working group

We present the results of the 2001 paternity testing workshop of the English speaking working group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. In total, 36 laboratories participated. The scenario was an alleged father and two children who were known to be children of the same non-investigated mother. All laboratories drew the correct conclusion. The laboratories used a total of 58 PCR-based systems, 14 conventional systems and 10 RFLP-based systems. The workshop also included a paper challenge. The results here revealed that occurrences of rare alleles, mutations and possible silent alleles were treated very differently among the participating laboratories.

Paternity determination in criminal cases by DNA typing in South Ukraine

We report the results of the 1995 and 1996 Paternity Testing Workshops of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Haemogenetics. In 1995, 18 laboratories participated and in 1996, 21 laboratories participated. Each year, blood samples from three persons (child, mother and alleged father) were sent to participating laboratories which performed paternity testing according to their usual protocols. The results and answers to questionnaires concerning methods were compiled and are presented in this report. From the questionnaires, a general tendency to a more frequent use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based methods was seen. In 1996, 62% of the laboratories used PCR based methods. Ten per cent of the laboratories used only PCR based methods. The remaining 90% of the laboratories performed restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) investigations of variable numbers of tandem repeat (VNTR) loci with single locus probes (SLPs) either alone or in combination with PCR based typing, multi locus probing, classical systems (ABO etc.), or serological HLA typing. In 1996, typing with classical systems was used in 29% of the laboratories. The majority of the laboratories performed RFLP typing of VNTR loci using very similar methods. The results and the inter-laboratory variations of the measured lengths of the DNA-fragments of the VNTR regions D2S44, D7S21, D7S22, and D12S11 of the trios were analysed. The overall coefficient of variation was 2.15% in 1995 and 1.43% in 1996. During the period 1991–1996, the inter-laboratory variation has decreased, most probably due to the fact that the methods have now been optimised and the majority of the participating laboratories have adopted the standardised method for RFLP typing with SLPs which was agreed upon for investigations in crime cases by the European DNA Profiling Group. In 1996, eight laboratories reported the results of PCR based typing of the short tandem repeat (STR) locus HumTH01, six laboratories reported results of HumVWA31A typing, and five laboratories reported the results of typing of the STR locus HumF13A1 and the VNTR locus D1S80. The results were concordant although the nomenclature was slightly inconsistent concerning the classification of an irregular repeat of the HumTH01 system.

A report of the 2000 and 2001 Paternity Testing Workshops of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics

During the last 10 years, the English Speaking Working Group (ESWG) of the International Society for Forensic Genetics (ISFG) has once a year arranged a Paternity Testing Workshop in which blood samples as well as a questionnaire concerning laboratory strategies were distributed to the participating laboratories. In 2000 and 2001, paper challenges were included in the workshops. Here, we present the results of the 2000 and 2001 Paternity Testing Workshops. The numbers of participating laboratories were 33 (2000) and 36 (2001). A total of 36% (2000) and 31% (2001) of the laboratories submitted typing results of variable number of tandem repeats (VNTRs) investigated with restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and single locus probes (SLPs). A total of 91% (2000) and 86% (2001) submitted typing results of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based systems. Typing errors occurred in 0.3% of the submitted PCR-based results in 2000 and in 0.1% in 2001. The results of the paper challenges showed a high degree of variation in the formulas used for calculation of the weight of evidence of rare events such as inconsistencies or possible silent alleles. The majority of the laboratories used the same formulas for calculations of frequently occurring events.

Strategies for the Venice Arsenale

The research on the Progetto Arsenale is being conducted by eleven operative units. The proposed concept/objective is the identification of relationships between environmental regimes, the system of buildings and the spaces in a manner congruent as much with the conservation of the architectural work as with the well-being of its habitability, i.e., the various ways in which large-scale urban architecture can be used. The research develops diagnostic procedures and advances models of intervention based on a number of sample buildings whose characteristics are representative of the entire body of the Arsenale. Intrinsic to the concept/objective is the study of a complex system allowing the identification of appropriate procedures of intervention and monitoring. This puts the interactive participation of many specialised disciplines to the test, and in this way satisfies one of the criteria of the Progetto Finalizzato Beni Culturali. To facilitate the work, the group of 11 operative units has set up a digital information centre, based on a three-dimensional representation of the Arsenale, for the exchange of data and for operative interaction. In February 2001 a partial ‘test workshop’ to discuss the Progetto Arsenale was held at the C.N.R. convention in Bressanone. This was followed by a public workshop held on the 30 May 2001 at the Venice C.N.R. Istituto di Studi delle Grandi Masse (Institute for the Study of Large Masses) with the participation of researchers, managers of culture and urban politics, at which the progress of the research was discussed. The proceedings of this workshop, presented here in a new format and with additional material, are the subject of this issue of the Journal of Cultural Heritage.

NPL. Reliability testing workshop

NPL. Reliability testing workshop

IPC. Imaging and test workshops highlighted at IPC printed circuits expo

IPC. Imaging and test workshops highlighted at IPC printed circuits expo

Guest editor's introduction to special section on high-level design validation and test

ALIDATION and verification are becoming bottlenecks in designing multimillion-gate systems. Simulation-based and formal-verification-based approaches are being pursued for design validation of such hardware-based systems. Simulation-based approaches such as generation and application of high-level tests, generation and execution of test programs for microprocessors. and hardware-accelerated emulation are finding good use in the industry. Formal-verification techniques such as model-checking and theorem-proving have been used to verify the correctness of small designs. Limited success has been achieved in deploying formal techniques in the context of protocol verification, verification of control logic in (pipelined) microprocessors, and verification of small application-specific systems. Scalability to large-scale industrial designs remains a concern for many verification-based approaches. Recognizing that neither simulation- nor verification-based approaches by themselves can solve the emerging validation problems, the High-Level Design Validation and Test (HLDVT) Workshop was started in 1996 to bring together these two communities. The HLDVT Workshop has successfully focused on addressing practical validation issues, methodologies, and techniques for validation of complex processors and heterogeneous system-on-chips (SoCs) and validation at higher levels of design

Panel discussion on the application of alternative models to cancer risk assessment.

The International Life Sciences Institute Alternative Carcinogenicity Testing (ILSI ACT) Workshop concluded with a panel discussion that addressed the framework issue of the appropriate application of alternative models to human cancer risk assessment. This discussion encompassed both technical issues relating to the level of understanding of these models and their output as well as issues relating to the regulatory acceptance of these data. Although there were many different perspectives represented by the panelists, there was also significant consensus on many broad issues. This article focuses on several key areas of emphasis that were addressed by panelists and are considered critical issues for future discussions and evaluations.