Test processor for asynchronous chip test

摘要

Due to asynchronous timing and arbitration asynchronous designs may behave nonde-terministically. For the test of such Systems, this means that an exact timing, i.e. a tester cycle, of a test response cannot be guaranteed. This behavior makes functional tests of asynchronous designs relatively complex or even impossible. The present invention presents a concept for performing functional tests of asynchronous designs using a test processor infrastructure. To this end, we propose a low-cost microprocessor solution with special support of asynchronous handshake signaling that can either be integrated into the device-under-test (DUT), mounted on the load board of the tester or a combination of both.