Mentor Graphics

According to various industry reports, for a large percentage of ASICs the time needed to debug the design and get it into production is equal to or greater than the time spent actually designing the chip. Since product windows continue to shrink, it is clear that debug times must be dramatically reduced to achieve acceptable time-to-market metrics. The silicon debug process can be broken down into initial silicon bring-up and design debug. The bringup process involves writing and debugging one or more test programs as well as generating and debugging test patterns on the tester. The design debug process often involves the need to apply different test patterns under various conditions to discover and understand design problems or limitations. The silicon debug process can often take weeks or even months to complete. The paper will describe how embedded test solutions are uniquely capable of addressing today's rapidly growing quality and time-to-market challenges.