Accumulator Compression Testing

A new test data reduction technique called accumulator compression testng (ACT) is proposed. ACT is an extension of syndrome testing. It is shown that the enumeration of errors missed by ACT for a unit under test is equivalent to the number of restricted partitions of a number. Asymptotic results are obtained for independent and dependent error modes. Comparison is made between signature analysis (SA) and ACT. Theoretical results indicate that with ACT a better control over fault coverage can be obtained than with SA. Experimental results are supportive of this indication. Built-in self test for processor environments may be feasible with ACT. However, for general VLSI circuits the complexity of ACT may be a problem as an adder is necessary.