Microprocessor system failures debug and fault isolation methodology

Diagnosis of functional failures can be used to debug design issues, isolate manufacturing defects, and improve manufacturing yield. Automated failure analysis and rapid root-cause isolation is critical for meeting ever decreasing product time to market demand. Conventional debug approach requires in-depth architecture knowledge and debug expertise. In this paper, we present a two phase approach for isolating microprocessor functional failures. First, failing functional blocks are identified utilizing functional fault simulation. Then, algorithmic diagnosis techniques are applied to accurately identify the failing signals within a functional block. Results are presented showing successful isolation of silicon defects on Intel® Core™ dual-core processor.