Constraint-based test pattern generation at the Register-Transfer Level

The paper introduces a novel constraint-based automated test pattern generator for Register-Transfer Level (RTL) designs. The tool combines test path constraint activation with a constraint solver. First, a deterministic algorithm that extracts constraints for activating test paths at RTL is applied. Subsequently, a constraint solving package ECLiPSe is used for assembling the tests. Experiments on ITC99 and HLSynth92/95 benchmarks show that the proposed deterministic method offers short run times. In particular, it provides increased fault coverage for hard-to-test designs with respect to earlier, semiformal, approaches.