Optimal Contexts for the Self-Test of Coarse Grain Dynamically Reconfigurable Processors

This paper proposes a self-test method of dynamically reconfigurable processors (DRPs) without area overhead. This method constructs a test frame of processor elements (PEs) such that it consists of test pattern generators, response analyzers and PEs under test, and switches several test frames dynamically so as to test all the PEs. Since the number of contexts and test application time are subject to the structure of test frames, we design several test frames with different structures and discuss the relationship of the structures to the number of contexts and test application time. Based on this discussion, we can construct the best test frame according to a given test environment.