A system and method for increasing the yield of integrated circuits
containing memory partitions the memory into regions and then
independently tests each region to determine which, if any, of the memory
regions contain one or more memory failures. The test results are stored
for later retrieval. Prior to using the memory, software retrieves the
test results and uses only the memory sections that contain no memory
failures. A consequence of this approach is that integrated circuits
containing memory that would have been discarded for containing memory
failures now may be used. This approach also does not significantly
impact die area.