INSTRUCTOR: Zeljko Zilic ( zeljko@macs.ee.McGill.CA)

Mass production of digital systems, that has led to the enormous creation of wealth,  relies critically on high-quality testing tools and techniques.  The more commercially successfull the design is, the more emphasis is placed on the quality of tests. This course teaches the basics of  digital system testing and Design for Testability (DFT).  This course builds on the testing basics to carry out the advanced projects in the application of testing techniques to the verification, debug and emulation of digital systems.

COURSE AIM: This year, the goal is to produce the research project of the quality comparable to the publications in the leading testing conferences. Towards that goal, you will learn how to critically explore and judge the state-of-the art literature, setup the research topic, and carry out the high-quality research work to its completion. On completing this course, you should advance your understand of the modern applications of testing in general and be capable of researching and reading critically the leading recent literature.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Familiarity with the testing concepts, goals, algorithmic techniques used for test pattern generation and the circuit techniques for BIST are assumed through the exposure to courses such as COEN6521 at Concordia or through intensive seminars (last year we had prof. Hayes' one-day course.

BACKGROUND TEXTBOOKS: K. Radecka and Z. Zilic Verification by Error Modeling: Using Testing Techniques in Hardware Verification, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004.
M. L. Bushnell and V. D. Agrawal,  Essential of Electronics Testing for Digital, Memory and Mixed-Signal Circuits,  Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001.

COURSE CONTENT & (OVERLAPPING) SCHEDULE:

Background: Testing and Design for Testability: Fault Modeling, Algorithmic Background,  Circuit Representation, Test Pattern Generation, Design for Testability [2 weeks]

Verification and Debug by Testing Techniques Assertion-based Verification and Debug, Error modeling-based Verification [4 weeks]

Paper Reviews:Papers related to the projects; "breadth" papers (some with hard deadlines) [5 weeks]

Project: Advanced Topics in Verification and Debug Applications[12 weeks]

Presentations: [1 week]

GRADING SCHEME:  Reading/Review Assignments: 30%.  Project: 70%

Slides of (very old) completed student projects are here

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES : This year, we will facilitate the on-line cooperation through WebCT and other means. Each student will maintain own set of online resources for organizing and visualizing the gathered knowledge, sharing and cooperation, as well as for obtaining the feedback.