Patent Document ID: 7765450
Application ID: 11256211
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of generating test patterns for testing electronic circuits, the method implemented by one or more computers, the method comprising: from a plurality of algorithms related to test pattern generation, determining which of the test-pattern generation algorithms are dependent and which of the test-pattern generation algorithms are independent, wherein the dependent test-pattern generation algorithms depend on results of other test-pattern generation algorithms and the independent test-pattern generation algorithms do not depend on results of other test-pattern generation algorithms and selecting at least two of the independent algorithms that can be executed in parallel using at least one random number generator to generate random number sequences for the test pattern generation; isolating the generation of random number sequences associated with the selected independent algorithms by ensuring that random number sequence generation of at least one of the selected independent algorithms does not depend on random number sequence generation of other of the selected independent algorithms; selecting at least two dependent test-pattern generation algorithms to be executed on the same processor and wherein the selected independent algorithms are to be executed in parallel using multiple processors; processing multiple call instances of at least one of the selected independent algorithms on multiple processors; seeding the at least one random number generator associated with the at least one of the selected independent algorithms in an independent manner by calculating a seed of the at least one of the selected independent algorithms independently by using at least one call parameter of a call instance of the at least one of the selected independent algorithms; and reseeding a number generator using a seed value and upon completion of execution of one of the selected algorithms, reseeding the number generator to the prior seed value; generating at least one test pattern using at least one of the selected algorithms.