UTILIZATION OF ONLINE (CONCURRENT) CHECKERS DURING BUILT-IN SELF-TESTAND VICE-VERSA

Concurrent checkers are commonly used in computer systems to detect co mputational errors on-line, which enhances reliability. Using the codi ng theory framework developed earlier by the authors, it is shown in t he following that concurrent checkers, already available within the ci rcuit, can be utilized very effectively during off-line testing. Speci fically, test time as well as fault escape probability can both be red uced simultaneously. The proposed combined scheme can be implemented w ith simple modification of existing hardware. Also shown is a novel us e of BIST hardware for concurrent checking. Specifically proposed is a novel, dual use of concurrent checkers and built-in self-test hardwar e, yielding mutual advantage.