A design approach for a microprogrammed control unit with built in self test

Abstract

We present an architecture for concurrent testing of a microprogrammed control unit. This approach is compared with other control unit testing strategies. The advantages of this approach are: a) it allows testing of the control unit independent of the operational section, b) minimizes the hardcore, c) it is easily incorporated in microprogrammed control units, d) since it is concurrent, probability of detecting intertermittent errors is high, e) it is incorporated into the specification and therefore amenable for VLSI implementations.