Abstract: A system, apparatus, computer program product and method of performing functional validation testing in a system are provided. Generally, functional validation testing includes data acquisition and data validation testing. During the functional validation testing two devices may be exchanging data. The exchange of data by the two devices may be referred to as data acquisition. The data from one device and the data from the other device may be compared to each other. This may be referred to as data validation. When data is exchanged during data acquisition, it is also stored in appropriate locations in a pool of buffers in memory. During the data acquisition, checks are made to determine if the system is entering an idle cycle. If so, the data validation test is performed by using the data in the pool of buffers in memory.

Abstract: A system, apparatus, computer program product and method of performing operational validation on a system are provided. The system may include a CPU with a cache, a communications network, and a plurality of devices exchanging data during a test. When the test is ready to be performed, the CPU may set up a pool of buffers in the cache. The pool of buffers may generally have a set of locations corresponding to locations in an actual destination buffer and a set of locations corresponding to locations in an actual source buffer. During the performance of the test, data is exchanged over the communications network to and from the source and destination buffers. Snooping logic in the cache may snoop data on the communications network. The data snooped may be entered in appropriate locations in the pool of buffers. This allows the CPU to perform operational validation by using cached data instead of data that is in the actual source and destination buffers.