Observation Scan Solves ISO 26262 In-System Test Issues

Observation Scan Solves ISO 26262 In-System Test Issues
by Tom Simon on 03-23-2021 at 10:00 am

Observation scan for ISO 26262

Automotive electronic content has been growing at an accelerating pace, along with a shift from infotainment toward mission critical functions such as traction control, safety systems, engine control, autonomous driving, etc. The ISO 26262 automotive electronics safety standard evolved to help ensure that these systems… Read More


Mentor Offers Next Generation DFT with Streaming Scan Network

Mentor Offers Next Generation DFT with Streaming Scan Network
by Tom Simon on 11-12-2020 at 10:00 am

Streaming Scan Network

Design for test (DFT) requires a lot of up-front planning that can be difficult to alter if testing needs or performance differ from initial expectations. Hierarchical methodologies help in many ways including making it easier to reduce on chip resources such as the number of test signals. Also, hierarchical test allows for speed-ups… Read More


Power in Test at RTL Defacto Shows the Way

Power in Test at RTL Defacto Shows the Way
by Bernard Murphy on 10-15-2020 at 6:00 am

scan chains crossing power domainspng

In the early days of Atrenta I met with Ralph Marlett, a distinguished test expert with many years of experience at Zuken and Recal Redac. He talked me into believing we could do meaningful static analysis for DFT-friendliness at RTL. His work with us really opened my eyes to the challenges that test groups face in integrating their… Read More


Getting Physical to Improve Test – White Paper

Getting Physical to Improve Test – White Paper
by Tom Simon on 08-26-2020 at 6:00 am

Calculating Total Critical Area

One of the most significant and oft repeated trends in EDA is the use of information from layout to help drive other parts of the design flow. This has happened with simulation and synthesis among other things. Of course, we think of test as a physical operation, but test pattern generation and sorting have been netlist based operations.… Read More


Novel DFT Approach for Automotive Vision SoCs

Novel DFT Approach for Automotive Vision SoCs
by Tom Simon on 07-16-2020 at 6:00 am

Mentor Tessent IC Design

You may have seen a recent announcement from Mentor, a Siemens business, regarding the use of their Tessent DFT software by Ambarella for automotive applications. The announcement is a good example of how Mentor works with their customers to assure design success. On the surface the announcement comes across as a nice block and… Read More


Atos Crafts NoC, Pad Ring, More Using Defacto

Atos Crafts NoC, Pad Ring, More Using Defacto
by Bernard Murphy on 05-21-2020 at 6:00 am

Mont Blanc

I’ve talked before about how Defacto provides a platform for scripted RTL assembly. Kind of a rethink of the IP-XACT concept but without need to get into XML (it works directly with SV), and with a more relaxed approach in which you decide what you want to automate and how you want to script it.

They’re hosting a webinar on May 28th 10-11am… Read More


DFT Innovations Come from Customer Partnerships

DFT Innovations Come from Customer Partnerships
by Tom Simon on 05-05-2020 at 10:00 am

Mentro Tessent Innovation

There is an adage that says that quality is not something that can be slapped on at the end of the design or manufacturing process. Ensuring quality requires careful thought throughout development and production. Arguably this adage is more applicable to the topic of Design for Test (DFT) than almost any other area of IC development… Read More


Bringing Hierarchy to DFT

Bringing Hierarchy to DFT
by Tom Simon on 01-30-2020 at 6:00 am

Tessent Hierarchical Flow

Hierarchy is nearly universally used in the SoC design process to help manage complexity. Dealing with flat logical or physical designs proved unworkable decades ago. However, there were a few places in the flow where flat tools continued to be used. Mentor lead the pack in the years around 1999 in helping the industry move from … Read More


Seminar: Mentor Forum for Tessent DFT 2019 India

Seminar: Mentor Forum for Tessent DFT 2019 India
by Daniel Payne on 08-28-2019 at 12:48 pm

Overview

Test for the Autonomous Age

The seminar will focus on three key test challenges IC vendors face as they try to make the promises of the autonomous age a reality.

  • Implementing DFT on the very large designs and new compute architectures that are required for efficient AI and machine learning
  • Achieving high test quality and
Read More

Can a hierarchical Test flow be used on a flat design?

Can a hierarchical Test flow be used on a flat design?
by Tom Simon on 08-15-2019 at 10:00 am

It is pretty common for physical layout to work from a flattened hierarchy for blocks or even full chips, even though the front-end design starts with a hierarchical representation. This was not always the case. Way back when, the physical layout matched the logical hierarchy during the design process. Of course, this led to all… Read More