Evolution of Synthetic RTL Benchmark Circuits with Predefined Testability

This article presents a new real-world application of evolutionary computing in the area of digital-circuits testing. A method is described which enables to evolve large synthetic RTL benchmark circuits with a predefined structure and testability. Using the proposed method, a new collection of synthetic benchmark circuits was developed. These benchmark circuits will be useful in a validation process of novel algorithms and tools in the area of digital-circuits testing. Evolved benchmark circuits currently represent the most complex benchmark circuits with a known level of testability. Furthermore, these circuits are the largest that have ever been designed by means of evolutionary algorithms. This work also investigates suitable parameters of the evolutionary algorithm for this problem and explores the limits in the complexity of evolved circuits.