Functional Testing of Digital Systems

Functional testing is testing aimed at validating the correct operation of a digital system with respect to its functional specification. We have designed and implemented a practical test generation methodology that can generate tests directly from a system's high-level specification. Solutions adopted include multi-level fault models and multi-stage test generation. Tests generated from the methodology were compared against test programs supplied by a computer manufacturer and were found to detect more faults with much better efficiency. The experiment demonstrated that functional testing can be both practical and efficient. Automatic generation of design validation tests is now closer to reality.