The development and testing of a processor self-test program

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Abstract
This paper describes that methods used to develop and test a self-test program for the PP250 processor. The PP250 is a processor designed for use in reliable, multi-processor control systems and the self-test program forms part of the fault protection software intended for use in these systems. The results of this design exercise show that: (a) it is possible to produce processor self-test programs which have a very high fault detection ability, and (b) digital simulation can provide a useful testing tool even when the unit to be simulated is as large as a processor. An account is given of the time taken to develop the self-test program and the associated testing aids together with the performance of the program in terms of size, speed and fault detection ability. It is anticipated that these results will help designers of reliable computer systems to evaluate possible design approaches.

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