Method for the automatic generation of test sequences

Claim 1

Method for the automatic generation, from a system or protocol specified as an FSM, of sequences of input signals, which are to be supplied to a system to be tested, together with the associated output signals which are to be received from the system to be tested and which serve to establish whether or not the implementation is in a particular state, CHARACTERISED BY a first step in which the FSM is converted into a first table containing input-output signals and associated start and end states; a second step in which, for a particular state, a second table is generated by copying the first table and, in doing so, marking that state as a start state and all the other states as a valid end state; a third step in which for each of the other states a third table is generated by copying the first or the second table, adding thereto at least one escape state and, in those third tables, in each case marking that other state as a start state and that escape state as a valid end state for all invalid input-output signals; a fourth step in which a fourth table is generated by logically combining the second table with all the third tables to give combination states which occur both in the second and in all the third tables, that combination state being marked as a start state which is marked as a start state in both the second and in all the third tables, and all those combination states being marked as an end state which are marked as an end state in both the second and in all the third tables; a fifth step in which each sequence of input-output signals from the fourth table, starting from a combination state marked as a start state and ending in a combination state marked as an end state, is selected as one of the desired test sequences and is stored in a fifth table.