Abstract: A system and method for processing scan data for integrated circuit testing. Scan data is divided into three groups of scan data segments: scan-in data segments, scan-out data segments and scan-mask data segments. The sequence of scan data segments in each group constitutes the operative test data in a scan stream. Each scan stream is represented by a table having a row corresponding to each scan data segment in the stream. Each row has four fields: a start address, a segment length, a start pad length and an end pad length. The start address is a pointer to the scan data segment in memory where the scan data segment is stored in a contiguous portion of memory. Scan data segment length is the length in bits of the segment. Start pad length is a delay value measured in number of scan clock cycles that must elapse before processing the respective segment in the scan stream.