Debug Using DFT Features
In addition to being useful for manufacturing "go/no go" testing, scan chains can also be used to "debug" chip designs. In this context, the chip is exercised in normal "functional mode" (for example, a computer or mobile-phone chip might execute assembly language instructions). At any time, the chip clock can be stopped, and the chip re-configured into "test mode". At this point the full internal state can be dumped out, or set to any desired values, by use of the scan chains. Another use of scan to aid debug consists of scanning in an initial state to all memory elements and then go back to functional mode to perform system debug. The advantage is to bring the system to a known state without going through many clock cycles. This use of scan chains, along with the clock control circuits are a related sub-discipline of logic design called "Design for Debug" or "Design for Debugability".
Read more about this topic: Design For Testing
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