Patent ID: 8479172

Claim:
A system for testing a base machine, the system comprising: the base machine, the base machine including a base feature set (BFS) and a testing module; and a test case generator, the test case generator being configured to: select a testing level of the base machine, the testing level having a legacy architecture; determine a feature set of the legacy architecture based on the BFS; generate a set of test instructions based on the feature set; and provide the set of test instructions to the testing module; wherein the test case generator includes at least the following feature sets: the BFS, the BFS including the valid features for the base machine; a new feature set (NFS) for each level that includes all new features for each machine level as compared to an immediately prior level; a global feature set (GFS) of all features that are valid for all machine levels; and a removed feature set (RFS) for each level that includes all features that were removed from an immediately prior level.