Vector space theoretic analysis of additive cellular automata and its application for pseudoexhaustive test pattern generation

Abstract

A novel scheme for utilizing the regular structure of three neighborhood additive cellular automata (CAs) for pseudoexhaustive test pattern generation is introduced. The vector space generated by a CA can be decomposed into several cyclic subspaces. A cycle corresponding to an m-dimensional cyclic subspace has been shown to pseudoexhaustively test an n-input circuit (n>or=m). Such a cycle is shown to supply a (m-1) bit exhaustive pattern including the all-zeros (m-1)-tuple. Schemes have been reported specifying how one or more subsets of (m-1) cell positions of an n-cell CA can be identified to generate exhaustive patterns in an m-dimensional cyclic subspace.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>