Incremental fault dictionary

摘要

An incremental fault dictionary in which the diagnostic simulation results of current tests are stored for future use. Diagnostic simulation results are incrementally added to the fault dictionary, and information in the incremental fault dictionary is used to avoid expensive redundant fault simulations. The size of the incremental fault dictionary is maintained within user definable bounds by identifying and deleting faults that need not be maintained in the incremental fault dictionary. The incremental fault dictionary beneficially provides more accurate and faster diagnostics than a typical prior art diagnostic fault simulation.