Spyglass MBIST – is it BIST? or something else…
OK, so there was this press release that came out a couple of weeks ago, something about ST Micro adopting a new tool from Atrenta, called Spyglass MBIST.  I have to admit, when I first saw this press release, I couldn’t help but wonder, between the the memory IP companies that offer BIST insertion for their own memory macros and other DFT vendors that sell BIST implementation tools for various embedded macros, what about this tool is different? I didn’t read it that closely, I suppose, because it did say “Atre

Gary Smith’s Wallchart – DFT Tools
Gary Smith EDA Research comes out with their “Wallcharts” each year, listing all the EDA vendors, broken down by category. Understandably, It’s a wallchart, with lots of names on it, so there is no description of what each company does. So to appease my own curiosity, and as a DFT guy, I thought I’d take his DFT section (which appeared on the CAE EDA 2009 Wallchart) and add my own comments. Here we are

Worried about power during at-speed logic test?
[editors note: This post is fifth in a regular series of featured contributions from Stephen Pateras of LogicVision] As luck (or Murphy) would have it, just when we thought we had the at-speed logic test problem licked, along comes all these power problems. But no need to panic (at least not for this…) because as it turns out, there are a bunch of techniques you can use to deal with this growing challenge. In a nutshell, at-speed logic test techniques, both BIST and ATPG-based by th

Core Test Again… More in IEEE D&T Magazine
I always look forward to getting my new IEEE Design & Test magazine.  It seems to consistently contain  great articles that bring out leading edge practices in IC design and test.  And, refreshingly for me, mostly test.  Design-for-test.  Good stuff. The May/June issue that just arrived in my mailbox this week did not disappoint – it was part 2 of the special issue on IEEE Std 1500 and Its Usage – I blogged about the first part in February:

OK - you gotta think a little harder than that…
There's not been a ton of talk about the recently announced agreement between Mentor Graphics and LogicVision (it's test-related, after all), but a few comments and blog posts out there on the intertubes have me wondering whether people put any effort into these things at all.