This work describes an approach to building Grid applications based on the premise that users who wish to access and run these applications prefer to do so without becoming experts on Grid technology. We describe an application architecture based on wrapping user applications and application workflows as Web services and Web service resources. These services are visible to the users and to resource providers through a family of Grid portal components that can be used to configure, launch, and monitor complex applications in the scientific language of the end user. The applications in this model are instantiated by an application factory service. The layered design of the architecture makes it possible for an expert to configure an application factory service with a custom user interface client that may be dynamically loaded into the portal.

Behavioral specification of a VLSI design can be used to suggest behavioral modifications that improve testability of the design. Past work has been targeted at identifying the techniques that will enable such modifications. However, the impact of such behavioral modifications on the testability of a design has not been analyzed with regards to fault coverage and area overhead which is the focus of this paper. Results obtained show that the area overhead is low and the fault coverage is higher when the behavior is modified for testability. These results are compared with the results obtained when partial scan is used to improve the testability of a design.>

Testability is becoming an increasing concern in the design of present-day VLSI systems because of their higher density and complexity. This is particularly important in the case of arithmetic units, such as adders, which form the core of any processing unit. Techniques like design for testability (DFT) have been implemented, but a methodology for evaluating and selecting a suitable adder has not been developed. We present an exhaustive comparison of adders in terms of performance, area and testability, by formulating a figure of merit, the PLUS factor. The results of this comparison can be extended to evaluate the suitability of an adder for a particular set of design goals and constraints.>

The paper discusses techniques that help a designer to consider testability features early in the design cycle. The behavioral specification of a design is used to perform high level testability analysis, based on which behavioral modifications for testability are suggested to the designer. Results show that the overhead for incorporating these modifications is minimal.>