Behavioral-level test vector generation for system-on-chip designs

Co-design tools represent an effective solution for reducing costs and shortening time-to-market, when system-on-chip design is considered. In a top-down design flow, designers would greatly benefit from the availability of tools able to automatically generate test sequences, which can be reused during the following design steps, from the system-level specification to the gate-level description. This would significantly increase the chance of identifying testability problems early in the design flow, thus reducing the costs and increasing the final product quality. The paper proposes an approach for integrating the ability to generate test sequences into an existing co-design tool. Preliminary experimental results are reported, assessing the feasibility of the proposed approach.