Using infrastructure IPs to support SW-based self-test of processor cores

SoCs normally include microprocessor/microcontroller cores. Testing them following the software-based self-test approach is attractive, mainly because this allows at speed testing, and does not require internally modifying the core. However, this raises some issues, such as how to upload and launch the test, how to monitor the results, how to embed the adopted solutions into a suitable wrapper to enhance core modularity and test reusability. The paper proposes a possible solution to the above issues exploiting Infrastructure IPs, and reports the results gathered on two case studies.