System and method for increasing the extent of built-in self-testing of memory and circuitry

Abstract

An integrated circuit (IC), a method of testing an IC and a method of reading test results from an IC containing built-in self-test (BIST) circuitry. In one embodiment, the IC includes: (1) an external test bus interface, (2) read-write memory coupled to the external test bus interface, (3) other circuitry and (4) BIST circuitry, coupled to the external test bus interface, the read-write memory and the other circuitry and configured to test the read-write memory to identify a good data block therein, store in a predetermined data block in the read-write memory multiple instances of a pointer to the good data block, conduct a test of at least the other circuitry and store at least some results of the test in the good data block.