Surviving state disruptions caused by test: The “Lobotomy Problem”

Abstract

The practice of initializing a board or system for testing purposes is not an exact science, but rather, pursued empirically and with little help from IC designers. This paper examines some of the issues and trends that justify adding features to IEEE 1149.1 that will facilitate safe, fast and effective initialization of a board or system, to get it ready for testing and to leave it in a safe state upon completion of testing.