Title :
Detection of control flow errors using signature and checking instructions
Author :
Sosnowski, Janusz
Author_Institution :
Inst. of Comput. Sci., Warsaw Tech. Univ., Poland
Abstract :
An approach is presented to the online detection of control flow errors caused by transient and intermittent faults in microprocessor systems. It is based on the idea of signatured instruction streams. Signatures are embedded into the program memory using the monitored processor instructions. Compared with existing techniques, the presented approach is universal and can be easily implemented using off-the-shelf programmable array logic and LCA circuits. The hardware overhead ranges from one to several chips for microprocessors with 8-bit and 16-bit data buses. Program memory overhead is 10-20% and quite often no extra memory chip is required. A special software module has been developed to embed signatures and checkpoints into application programs
Keywords :
automatic testing; fault location; integrated circuit testing; integrated logic circuits; logic testing; microprocessor chips; 16 bit; 8 bit; IC testing; LCA circuits; checking instructions; computer testing; control flow errors; intermittent faults; microprocessor chips; microprocessor systems; off-the-shelf programmable array logic; online detection; program memory overhead; signatured instruction streams; software module; transient faults; Circuit faults; Control systems; Data buses; Error correction; Fault detection; Hardware; Logic circuits; Microprocessors; Monitoring; Programmable logic arrays;
Conference_Titel :
Test Conference, 1988. Proceedings. New Frontiers in Testing, International
Conference_Location :
Washington, DC
Print_ISBN :
0-8186-0870-6
DOI :
10.1109/TEST.1988.207783
