Method and system for testing bit failures in array elements of an electronic circuit

1. A method for testing bit failures in memory array elements of an electronic circuit, said method comprising the steps of:

using a computer, modifying a representation of said electronic circuit such that errors can be injected into said memory array elements via input signals of read, write, or both read and write logic of said memory array elements;

building an emulator model from said modified representation;

injecting errors into said memory array elements during an emulation of said emulator model; and

wherein said representation of said electronic circuit is a hierarchical netlist and said modifying of said representation of said electronic circuit includes:

identifying a desired array memory signal by type or attribute from said hierarchical netlist;

identifying an assignment of said desired array memory signal to a data output signal in said hierarchical netlist; and

inserting an equivalent of error injection behavioral between said data output signal and said memory signal.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said representation of said electronic circuit is modified before, in, or both before and in said building step.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein in the emulation of said emulator model said input signals can be controlled from an emulator model input facility.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein said errors can be turned on at configurable array memory addresses.

5. The method according to claim 2 , wherein said errors can be turned on at configurable array memory addresses.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said errors can be turned on at configurable array memory addresses.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the only the design of the read, write or both read and write logic blocks of said memory array are modified.

8. A computer program loadable into the internal memory of a digital computer comprising software code portions that when executed by said computer implement a method for testing bit failures in memory array elements of an electronic circuit, said method comprising:

modifying a representation of said electronic circuit such that errors can be injected into said memory array elements via input signals of read, write, or both read and write logic of said memory array elements;

building an emulator model from said modified representation;

injecting errors into said memory array elements during an emulation of said emulator model; and

wherein said representation of said electronic circuit is a hierarchical netlist and said modifying of said representation of said electronic circuit includes:

identifying a desired array memory signal by type or attribute from said hierarchical netlist;

identifying an assignment of said desired array memory signal to a data output signal in said hierarchical netlist; and

inserting an equivalent of error injection behavioral between said data output signal and said memory signal.

9. The computer program according to claim 8 , wherein said representation of said electronic circuit is modified before, in, or both before and in the building step.

10. The computer program according to claim 9 , wherein in the emulation of said emulator model said input signals can be controlled from an emulator model input facility.

11. The computer program according to claim 10 , wherein said errors can be turned on at configurable array memory addresses.

12. The computer program according to claim 8 , the computer program comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium embodying program instructions executable by a computer, said embodied program instructions comprising a compiled computer program.

13. The computer program of claim 8 , wherein the only the design of the read, write or both read and write logic blocks of said memory array are modified.

14. An emulation system for testing bit failures in memory array elements of an electronic circuit, comprising:

a test system including a test program;

a computer system including a representation of said electronic circuit, said test system connected to said computer system by an interface card;

said computer system configured to:

modify a representation of said electronic circuit such that errors can be injected into said memory array elements via input signals of read, write, or both read and write logic of said memory array elements;

build an emulator model from said modified representation;

inject errors into said memory array elements during an emulation of said emulator model; and

wherein said representation of said electronic circuit is a hierarchical netlist and said computer system is further configured to:

identify a desired array memory signal by type or attribute from said hierarchical netlist;

identify an assignment of said desired array memory signal to a data output signal in said hierarchical netlist; and

insert an equivalent of error injection behavioral between said data output signal and said memory signal.

15. The emulation system of claim 14 , wherein said representation of said electronic circuit is modified before, in, or both before and in the building step.

16. The emulation system of claim 15 , wherein said emulator model said input signals can be controlled from an emulator model input facility.

17. The emulation system of claim 16 , wherein said errors can be turned on at configurable array memory addresses.

18. The emulation system of claim 14 , wherein said computer program comprises a non-transitory computer usable medium embodying program instructions executable by the computer, said embodied program instructions comprising a compiled computer program.

19. The emulation system of claim 14 , wherein the only the design of the read, write or both read and write logic blocks of said memory array are modified.