Patent Document ID: 20020120891
Application ID: 09739048
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for diagnosing failures within logic being tested, the logic being represented by a plurality of nodes interconnected by way of nets, the relationship between the logic and the failures being provided by boolean equations (BEs), the method comprising the steps of: a) parsing the BEs; b) defining a plurality of categories indicative of matches between the BEs to failures within the logic; c) performing a simulation of the logic by way of test patterns, periodically invoking a monitor to determine the occurrence of a match between the BEs and the failures occurring in the logic; d) incrementing at periodic intervals a count in the category which describes the relationship between the equations, the failures, and simulated logic values, and accumulating the respective counts in each of the categories for each successive BE; and e) calculating for each of the categories a final score based on the respective incremental counts, wherein the final score is indicative of a correlation existing between conditions specified by the BEs and the failures within the logic.