The Last Bastion II : Some Q&A with DeFacto President and CTO Dr. Chouki Aktouf

In an earlier post, The Last Bastion Of DFT Tradition Falls : DeFacTo Technologies Introduces RTL Scan Insertion , I had listed some questions about HiDFT-Scan's capabilities. Dr. Chouki Aktouf (CTO, DeFacTo) was kind enough to answer these questions. Here's what Dr.Aktouf had to say about HiDFT-Scan.

Q : The change of methodology proposed is quite drastic. What's the easiest way adopt this flow in a phased manner?

The change in the overall test process is not that drastic; mainly you add DRC at RTL in conjunction with new checks (that now become possible) and displace gate-level scan insertion to RTL. HiDFT-Scan can be adopted progressively, IP-based for instance. The tool usage is also easy and accessible to RTL designers.

Q: Is HiDFT-Scan physically-aware when it comes to scan insertion?

Not physically aware, since we implement functional scan; but our scan is data-path sensitive. This ensures a good optimization during synthesis and P&R.

Q: Other EDA vendors are very much ahead in the DFT game and have very compelling DFT technologies. Synopsys has adaptive scan. Mentor has TestKompress. Is there a way to use HiDFT-Scan with tools from these vendors?

Absolutely. You can use HiDFT-Scan in conjunction with these tools. A typical example is TestKompress. Through HiDFT-Scan you can automatically access to TK and generate your final RTL including scan+test compression logic.

Q: Will we get a chance to see HiDFT in action?

If you are present at ITC, we will be pleased to talk to you at our booth #837.

Tags : DeFacTo, interview, HiDFT-Scan