Comparing topological, symbolic and GA-based ATPGs: An experimental approach

The goal of this paper is to compare from an experimental point of view the performance of three ATPG tools for synchronous sequential circuits. The three tools are state-of-the-art implementations of the topological, symbolic, and GA-based approaches, respectively. The environment we set up for obtaining a fair comparison is described: the same hardware platform, circuit and fault list description, and defection mechanism are adopted. The obtained results allow the reader to more deeply understand the characteristics and relative advantages/disadvantages of these methods.