Pipelined data processor with deterministic signature generation

Abstract

A pipelined data processing system includes functional circuitry having a plurality of test points located at predetermined circuit nodes within the functional circuitry, at least one staging storage element associated with a pipeline stage of the data processing system which is coupled to receive test data directly from the plurality of test points, and a multiple input shift register (MISR) coupled to receive test data from the at least one staging storage element and provide a MISR result. In one aspect, the at least on staging storage element has a plurality of staging storage elements wherein each of the plurality of staging storage elements corresponds to a different pipeline stage of the data processing system. In another aspect the MISR result is independent of varying memory access times.