Reducing test time with processor reuse in network-on-chip based systems

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes a test planning method capable of reusing available processors as test sources and sinks, and the on-chip network as the access mechanism for the test of cores embedded into a system on chip. The resulting test time of the system is evaluated considering the number of reused processors, the number of external interfaces, and power dissipation. Experimental results for a set of industrial examples based on the ITC'02 benchmarks show that the cooperative use of both the on-chip network and the embedded processors can increase the test parallelism and reduce the test time.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.8 Performance and Reliability
      B.8.1 Reliability, Testing, and Fault-Tolerance

General Terms:
Algorithms, Reliability

Keywords:
NoC testing, SoC test, computer-aided test (CAT), core-based test, network-on-chip, software-based test