An efficient mechanism for debugging RTL description

[[abstract]]In this paper, an efficient algorithm to diagnose design errors in RTL description is proposed. The diagnosis algorithm exploits the hierarchy available in RTL designs to locate design errors. Using data-path to reduce the number of error candidates and ensure that true errors are included in. According to the estimated probability, the most suspected error candidates would be reported first in the display. The advantages of the proposed method are simple and available.[[conferencedate]]20030630~20030702[[conferencelocation]]Calgary, Alta., Canad

[[alternative]]A Data-Path Based Verification and Diagnosis Mechanism for RTL Description of VLSI Circuit

計畫編號：NSC93-2215-E032-002研究期間：200408~200507研究經費：392,000[[abstract]]隨著數位雜性和速度與日遽增，設計者必須在高層次來設計電路才能符合市 場的需求，因為邏輯合成可作暫存器轉移層次﹙Register Transfer Level, RTL﹚ 到實際線路的轉換，所以現今的趨勢大部份是在暫存器轉移層次做設計的工作。 在現今設計的流程中，設計錯誤的發生大多於硬體描述語言﹙Hardware Description Languages, HDLs﹚行為描述的階段，實際的設計以及設計規格之 間在功能上的不吻合經常會發生。然而，因為現今的數位設計的複雜度越來越高 的情況之下，以手工的方式從程式中找到錯誤的位置越來越困難。 在這次計畫中，我們提供了以資料路徑為基礎的自動錯誤診斷之有效方法， 來找尋錯誤可能發生的範圍，對於這範圍，我們首先去除掉一些不可能造成錯誤 的敘述以獲得一個敘述的集合稱之為錯誤空間﹙error space﹚。再者，我們試著 評估在錯誤空間裡的敘述為真正造成錯誤的可能性，根據這可能性，我們以一個 優先次序將這些敘述顯示出來，藉此，來縮短除錯的時間。[[sponsorship]]行政院國家科學委員

FPGA design methodology for industrial control systems—a review

This paper reviews the state of the art of fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) design methodologies with a focus on industrial control system applications. This paper starts with an overview of FPGA technology development, followed by a presentation of design methodologies, development tools and relevant CAD environments, including the use of portable hardware description languages and system level programming/design tools. They enable a holistic functional approach with the major advantage of setting up a unique modeling and evaluation environment for complete industrial electronics systems. Three main design rules are then presented. These are algorithm refinement, modularity, and systematic search for the best compromise between the control performance and the architectural constraints. An overview of contributions and limits of FPGAs is also given, followed by a short survey of FPGA-based intelligent controllers for modern industrial systems. Finally, two complete and timely case studies are presented to illustrate the benefits of an FPGA implementation when using the proposed system modeling and design methodology. These consist of the direct torque control for induction motor drives and the control of a diesel-driven synchronous stand-alone generator with the help of fuzzy logic

SystemC Through the Looking Glass : Non-Intrusive Analysis of Electronic System Level Designs in SystemC

Due to the ever increasing complexity of hardware and hardware/software co-designs, developers strive for higher levels of abstractions in the early stages of the design flow. To address these demands, design at the Electronic System Level (ESL) has been introduced. SystemC currently is the de-facto standard for ESL design. The extraction of data from system designs written in SystemC is thereby crucial e.g. for the proper understanding of a given system. However, no satisfactory support of reflection/introspection of SystemC has been provided yet. Previously proposed methods for this purpose %introduced to achieve the goal nonetheless either focus on static aspects only, restrict the language means of SystemC, or rely on modifications of the compiler and/or parser. In this thesis, approaches that overcome these limitations are introduced, allowing the extraction of information from a given SystemC design without changing the SystemC library or the compiler. The proposed approaches retrieve both, static and dynamic (i.e. run-time) information

RTL Design Quality Checks for Soft IPs

Soft IPs are architectural modules which are delivered in the form of synthesizable RTL level codes written in some HDL (hardware descriptive language) like Verilog or VHDL or System Verilog. They are technology independent and offer high degree of modification flexibility. RTL is the complete abstraction of our design. Since SOC complexity is growing day by day with new technologies and requirement, it will be very much difficult to debug and fix issues after physical level. So to reduce effort and increase efficiency and accuracy it is necessary to fix most of the bugs in RTL level. Also if we are using soft IP, then our bug free IP can be used by third party. So early detection of bugs helps us not to go back to entire design and do all the process again and again. One of the important issue at RTL level of a design is the Clock Domain Crossing (CDC) problem. This is the issue which affects the performance at each and every stage of the design flow. Failure in fixing these issues at the earlier stage makes the design unreliable and design performance collapses. The main issue in real time clock designs are the metastability issue. Although we cannot check or see these issues using our simulator but we have to make preventions at RTL level. This is done by restructuring the design and adding required synchronizers. One more important area of consideration in VLSI design is power consumption. In modern low power designs low power is a key factor. So design consuming less power is preferred over design consuming more power. This decision should be made as early as possible. RTL quality check helps us on this aspect. Using different tools power estimation can be performed at RTL stage which saves lots of efforts in redesigning. This project aims at checking clock domain crossing faults at RTL stage and doing redesign of circuit to eliminate those faults. Also an effort is made to compare quality of two designs in terms of delay, power consumption and area

New Fault Detection, Mitigation and Injection Strategies for Current and Forthcoming Challenges of HW Embedded Designs

Tesis por compendio[EN] Relevance of electronics towards safety of common devices has only been growing, as an ever growing stake of the functionality is assigned to them. But of course, this comes along the constant need for higher performances to fulfill such functionality requirements, while keeping power and budget low. In this scenario, industry is struggling to provide a technology which meets all the performance, power and price specifications, at the cost of an increased vulnerability to several types of known faults or the appearance of new ones. To provide a solution for the new and growing faults in the systems, designers have been using traditional techniques from safety-critical applications, which offer in general suboptimal results. In fact, modern embedded architectures offer the possibility of optimizing the dependability properties by enabling the interaction of hardware, firmware and software levels in the process. However, that point is not yet successfully achieved. Advances in every level towards that direction are much needed if flexible, robust, resilient and cost effective fault tolerance is desired. The work presented here focuses on the hardware level, with the background consideration of a potential integration into a holistic approach. The efforts in this thesis have focused several issues: (i) to introduce additional fault models as required for adequate representativity of physical effects blooming in modern manufacturing technologies, (ii) to provide tools and methods to efficiently inject both the proposed models and classical ones, (iii) to analyze the optimum method for assessing the robustness of the systems by using extensive fault injection and later correlation with higher level layers in an effort to cut development time and cost, (iv) to provide new detection methodologies to cope with challenges modeled by proposed fault models, (v) to propose mitigation strategies focused towards tackling such new threat scenarios and (vi) to devise an automated methodology for the deployment of many fault tolerance mechanisms in a systematic robust way. The outcomes of the thesis constitute a suite of tools and methods to help the designer of critical systems in his task to develop robust, validated, and on-time designs tailored to his application.[ES] La relevancia que la electrónica adquiere en la seguridad de los productos ha crecido inexorablemente, puesto que cada vez ésta copa una mayor influencia en la funcionalidad de los mismos. Pero, por supuesto, este hecho viene acompañado de una necesidad constante de mayores prestaciones para cumplir con los requerimientos funcionales, al tiempo que se mantienen los costes y el consumo en unos niveles reducidos. En este escenario, la industria está realizando esfuerzos para proveer una tecnología que cumpla con todas las especificaciones de potencia, consumo y precio, a costa de un incremento en la vulnerabilidad a múltiples tipos de fallos conocidos o la introducción de nuevos. Para ofrecer una solución a los fallos nuevos y crecientes en los sistemas, los diseñadores han recurrido a técnicas tradicionalmente asociadas a sistemas críticos para la seguridad, que ofrecen en general resultados sub-óptimos. De hecho, las arquitecturas empotradas modernas ofrecen la posibilidad de optimizar las propiedades de confiabilidad al habilitar la interacción de los niveles de hardware, firmware y software en el proceso. No obstante, ese punto no está resulto todavía. Se necesitan avances en todos los niveles en la mencionada dirección para poder alcanzar los objetivos de una tolerancia a fallos flexible, robusta, resiliente y a bajo coste. El trabajo presentado aquí se centra en el nivel de hardware, con la consideración de fondo de una potencial integración en una estrategia holística. Los esfuerzos de esta tesis se han centrado en los siguientes aspectos: (i) la introducción de modelos de fallo adicionales requeridos para la representación adecuada de efectos físicos surgentes en las tecnologías de manufactura actuales, (ii) la provisión de herramientas y métodos para la inyección eficiente de los modelos propuestos y de los clásicos, (iii) el análisis del método óptimo para estudiar la robustez de sistemas mediante el uso de inyección de fallos extensiva, y la posterior correlación con capas de más alto nivel en un esfuerzo por recortar el tiempo y coste de desarrollo, (iv) la provisión de nuevos métodos de detección para cubrir los retos planteados por los modelos de fallo propuestos, (v) la propuesta de estrategias de mitigación enfocadas hacia el tratamiento de dichos escenarios de amenaza y (vi) la introducción de una metodología automatizada de despliegue de diversos mecanismos de tolerancia a fallos de forma robusta y sistemática. Los resultados de la presente tesis constituyen un conjunto de herramientas y métodos para ayudar al diseñador de sistemas críticos en su tarea de desarrollo de diseños robustos, validados y en tiempo adaptados a su aplicación.[CA] La rellevància que l'electrònica adquireix en la seguretat dels productes ha crescut inexorablement, puix cada volta més aquesta abasta una major influència en la funcionalitat dels mateixos. Però, per descomptat, aquest fet ve acompanyat d'un constant necessitat de majors prestacions per acomplir els requeriments funcionals, mentre es mantenen els costos i consums en uns nivells reduïts. Donat aquest escenari, la indústria està fent esforços per proveir una tecnologia que complisca amb totes les especificacions de potència, consum i preu, tot a costa d'un increment en la vulnerabilitat a diversos tipus de fallades conegudes, i a la introducció de nous tipus. Per oferir una solució a les noves i creixents fallades als sistemes, els dissenyadors han recorregut a tècniques tradicionalment associades a sistemes crítics per a la seguretat, que en general oferixen resultats sub-òptims. De fet, les arquitectures empotrades modernes oferixen la possibilitat d'optimitzar les propietats de confiabilitat en habilitar la interacció dels nivells de hardware, firmware i software en el procés. Tot i això eixe punt no està resolt encara. Es necessiten avanços a tots els nivells en l'esmentada direcció per poder assolir els objectius d'una tolerància a fallades flexible, robusta, resilient i a baix cost. El treball ací presentat se centra en el nivell de hardware, amb la consideració de fons d'una potencial integració en una estratègia holística. Els esforços d'esta tesi s'han centrat en els següents aspectes: (i) la introducció de models de fallada addicionals requerits per a la representació adequada d'efectes físics que apareixen en les tecnologies de fabricació actuals, (ii) la provisió de ferramentes i mètodes per a la injecció eficient del models proposats i dels clàssics, (iii) l'anàlisi del mètode òptim per estudiar la robustesa de sistemes mitjançant l'ús d'injecció de fallades extensiva, i la posterior correlació amb capes de més alt nivell en un esforç per retallar el temps i cost de desenvolupament, (iv) la provisió de nous mètodes de detecció per cobrir els reptes plantejats pels models de fallades proposats, (v) la proposta d'estratègies de mitigació enfocades cap al tractament dels esmentats escenaris d'amenaça i (vi) la introducció d'una metodologia automatitzada de desplegament de diversos mecanismes de tolerància a fallades de forma robusta i sistemàtica. Els resultats de la present tesi constitueixen un conjunt de ferramentes i mètodes per ajudar el dissenyador de sistemes crítics en la seua tasca de desenvolupament de dissenys robustos, validats i a temps adaptats a la seua aplicació.Espinosa García, J. (2016). New Fault Detection, Mitigation and Injection Strategies for Current and Forthcoming Challenges of HW Embedded Designs [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/73146TESISCompendi

Functional Verification of CMS PIXEL 28nm Design for the Large Hadron Collider Using Unit-Level Testing and Assertions

The evolution of data processing at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) requires advancements in thedesign and implementation of specialized hardware to manage large quantities of data generated by high-energy collisions of subatomic particles in experiments. The Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Design Group at Fermi Lab has developed an integrated chip that merges analog data acquisition systems with digital logic. This chip is designed to perform on-site classification of collision events, effectively distinguishing between low-energy, irrelevant particles and those important to high-energy physics investigations. This design integrates two versions of analog chips with a superpixel architecture, facilitating the direct application of neural network algorithms for data classification, thus significantly reducing the data bandwidth requirements by preprocessing data at the source. Using functional testing, design errors pertaining to undefined logic signals were addressed and corrected in the ASIC. To correct undefined logic signals in the ASIC chip, extensive simulations revealed issues with the testselect and encoderOut signals in the superPixel submodule, which initially included only row values for certain pixel coordinates. By converting these into a 2D signal array to encompass both rows and columns, the design was modified. Additional design updates included removing the scanCLK signal to simplify the clocking architecture and introducing a Resetnot signal across several modules to ensure the chip starts in a known, stable state. These corrections and enhancements have significantly improved the functionality and reliability of the ASIC

A study on Machine Learning-based Hardware Bug Localization

Simulation-based verification is a very essential technique in ensuring the correct functionality of any digital integrated circuit design before it goes on silicon. One of the major challenges of running simulation-based verification on complex designs is the tradeoff between simulation time and the time taken for failure localization or to root cause. This is because the simulation run times could be very high when there are many checkers used per cycle of execution. However, when lesser checkers are turned on, the amount of time for manual debug increases because, after failure, the verification engineer has to manually analyze the failure and turn on the more granular checkers individually and re-simulate; or invest lots of time, memory and resources to manually go through the simulation cycles dumps before the failure which is not good given the current complexity of designs. Machine learning has emerged to be a popular technique to construct mathematical models that can understand the expected patterns from a given dataset. To address the aforementioned trade-off problem, an idea is investigated to use the failing signatures from fewer active high-level checkers during simulation to train a machine learning model to predict the location of the bug in the design. This information would in turn be used to turn on relevant checkers in the design before re-simulation. Other methods to analyze the signals in design after failure to predict bug location were also studied. This idea is implemented and tested on a MIPS processor with total of ~ 700 bugs injected in 15 different units to distinguish them with good accuracy