Design for debugging: the unspoken imperative in chip design.

The article discusses the need for electronic designers to develop system-on-chip (SOC) with provisions for debugging. The author discusses the different problems presented by testing and debugging integrated circuits. With the growing complexity of SOC designs, design teams are dedicating additional planning, implementation and silicon area to circuitry that supports debugging rather than test. Electronics company Broadcom assigned a corporate-level team of about 70 engineers who work with all the chip-design teams in the company on both debugging and testing, according to Kris Hublitz, senior director of test-development engineering.