Effectiveness of the cumulative vs. normal mode of operation for combinatorial testing

This paper discusses the state of the art of applying combinatorial interaction testing (CIT) in conjunction with mutation testing for hardware testing. In addition, the paper discusses the art of the practice of applying CIT in normal and cumulative mode in order to derive an optimal test suite that can be used for hardware testing in a production line. Our previous study based on applying CIT in cumulative mode; described the systematic application of the strategy for testing 4-bit Magnitude Comparator Integrated Circuits in a production line. Complementing our previous work, this paper compares the effectiveness of cumulative mode versus normal mode of operation. Our result demonstrates that the use of CIT in cumulative mode is more practical than normal mode of operation as far as detecting faults introduced by mutation.