Coupling EA and high-level metrics for the automatic generation of test blocks for peripheral cores

Abstract

Test of peripheral modules has not been deeply investigated by the research community. When embedded in a system on chip, however, peripherals pose accessibility problems that may make traditional test approaches ineffective. In this paper an evolutionary methodology, based upon coverage metrics at highlevel, is described to automatically generate test sets for peripheral modules in a SoC. A general-purpose evolutionary tool, able to cultivate composite individuals, has been developed and is used for the test set generation. This tool is described and its basic concepts explained. The method compares favorably with results obtained by hand.