A METHODOLOGY FOR FUNCTIONAL LEVEL TESTING OF MICROPROCESSORS
Satish M. Thatte, Jacob A. Abraham · 2005
The task of fault detection in microprocessors is very difficult because of their complexity. In this paper we present a general model for microprocessors in terms of their control and data processing sections, which includes features o f a large variety of available microprocessors. We then develop a fault model on a functional level which takes into account a large number of failures, including faults in instruction decoding, control commands, data transfer mechanisms, data s torage facilities, and the arithmetic and logic u nit. The basic requirement of a test procedure for a microprocessor is that it be able to check for proper execution of every instruction using o ther potentially faulty i nstructions. A set of test procedures is presented; this set is proved to be capable of detecting all faults in the fault model.