At-Speed Functional Verification of Programmable Devices

In this paper we present a novel approach for functional verification of programmable devices. The proposed methodology is suited to refine the results obtained by a functional automatic test pattern generator (ATPG). The hard-to-detect faults are examined by exploiting the controllability ability of a high-level ATPG in conjunction with the observability potentiality of software instructions targeted to the programmable device. Generated test programs can be used for both functional verification and at-speed testing.