CASTOR: an expert advisor for testability enhancement of VLSI systems

Describes CASTOR (Computer Aided System Testability OptimizeR), which is able to support CAD designers in order to produce testable and efficient VLSI designs. Expert system and object oriented techniques have been used to describe, in a homogeneous framework, different device architectures, formalized testability conditions and design for testability techniques. The CASTOR architecture is modular, and its I/O interfaces are based on the standard description language VHDL, to allow industrial exploitation and easy encapsulation in commercial CAD frameworks. CASTOR has been tested on an industrial telecommunication device. Results and figures of merit are included. The main contribution of this novel approach is the support provided by such an automatic tool to the common designer who does not have specific knowledge of testability items.