Automating physical mapping on Arm IP with Tessent

In this video, first presented at the 2021 International Test Conference, Arm design engineer Frank Frederick talks about the need for automating physical mapping with Tessent shared bus learning. Frederick covers the Arm MBIST interface and the MBIST information file, then explores the problems with logical to physical mapping that make automation necessary, and describes his team's experience using Tessent Shared Bus Learning to successfully automate physical mapping.

Automating the Arm MBIST interface

The Arm MBIST interface allows multiple logical arrays to be accessed via a common point in the design where the MBIST controller is attached. Each logical array contains physical memories that share a common structure. Arm provides a description of the interface or interfaces in user documentation.

The problem is the chance for user error in inserting these interfaces. The user has to read the documentation and manually insert the interfaces. Errors are seen later during simulation, when the user has to figure out where the error was introduced in the whole process.

To solve this problem, Arm has introduces an MBIST Information File, which Tessent MBIST can read automatically and understand the logical structure of the arrays behind the interface. Tessent automatically generates the template for each logical array. Once there is implementation (physical) of the memories, Tessent can read that to perform mapping to the physical arrays.

The video includes details on the requirements for physical mapping, examples of the process and results of Arms experiments with the Tessent MBIST tool.