3,509 research outputs found
RTL2RTL Formal Equivalence: Boosting the Design Confidence
Increasing design complexity driven by feature and performance requirements
and the Time to Market (TTM) constraints force a faster design and validation
closure. This in turn enforces novel ways of identifying and debugging
behavioral inconsistencies early in the design cycle. Addition of incremental
features and timing fixes may alter the legacy design behavior and would
inadvertently result in undesirable bugs. The most common method of verifying
the correctness of the changed design is to run a dynamic regression test suite
before and after the intended changes and compare the results, a method which
is not exhaustive. Modern Formal Verification (FV) techniques involving new
methods of proving Sequential Hardware Equivalence enabled a new set of
solutions for the given problem, with complete coverage guarantee. Formal
Equivalence can be applied for proving functional integrity after design
changes resulting from a wide variety of reasons, ranging from simple pipeline
optimizations to complex logic redistributions. We present here our experience
of successfully applying the RTL to RTL (RTL2RTL) Formal Verification across a
wide spectrum of problems on a Graphics design. The RTL2RTL FV enabled checking
the design sanity in a very short time, thus enabling faster and safer design
churn. The techniques presented in this paper are applicable to any complex
hardware design.Comment: In Proceedings FSFMA 2014, arXiv:1407.195
From FPGA to ASIC: A RISC-V processor experience
This work document a correct design flow using these tools in the Lagarto RISC- V Processor and the RTL design considerations that must be taken into account, to move from a design for FPGA to design for ASIC
Symbolic QED Pre-silicon Verification for Automotive Microcontroller Cores: Industrial Case Study
We present an industrial case study that demonstrates the practicality and
effectiveness of Symbolic Quick Error Detection (Symbolic QED) in detecting
logic design flaws (logic bugs) during pre-silicon verification. Our study
focuses on several microcontroller core designs (~1,800 flip-flops, ~70,000
logic gates) that have been extensively verified using an industrial
verification flow and used for various commercial automotive products. The
results of our study are as follows: 1. Symbolic QED detected all logic bugs in
the designs that were detected by the industrial verification flow (which
includes various flavors of simulation-based verification and formal
verification). 2. Symbolic QED detected additional logic bugs that were not
recorded as detected by the industrial verification flow. (These additional
bugs were also perhaps detected by the industrial verification flow.) 3.
Symbolic QED enables significant design productivity improvements: (a) 8X
improved (i.e., reduced) verification effort for a new design (8 person-weeks
for Symbolic QED vs. 17 person-months using the industrial verification flow).
(b) 60X improved verification effort for subsequent designs (2 person-days for
Symbolic QED vs. 4-7 person-months using the industrial verification flow). (c)
Quick bug detection (runtime of 20 seconds or less), together with short
counterexamples (10 or fewer instructions) for quick debug, using Symbolic QED
Formal Verification of an Iterative Low-Power x86 Floating-Point Multiplier with Redundant Feedback
We present the formal verification of a low-power x86 floating-point
multiplier. The multiplier operates iteratively and feeds back intermediate
results in redundant representation. It supports x87 and SSE instructions in
various precisions and can block the issuing of new instructions. The design
has been optimized for low-power operation and has not been constrained by the
formal verification effort. Additional improvements for the implementation were
identified through formal verification. The formal verification of the design
also incorporates the implementation of clock-gating and control logic. The
core of the verification effort was based on ACL2 theorem proving.
Additionally, model checking has been used to verify some properties of the
floating-point scheduler that are relevant for the correct operation of the
unit.Comment: In Proceedings ACL2 2011, arXiv:1110.447
Trojans in Early Design Steps—An Emerging Threat
Hardware Trojans inserted by malicious foundries
during integrated circuit manufacturing have received substantial
attention in recent years. In this paper, we focus on a different
type of hardware Trojan threats: attacks in the early steps of
design process. We show that third-party intellectual property
cores and CAD tools constitute realistic attack surfaces and that
even system specification can be targeted by adversaries. We
discuss the devastating damage potential of such attacks, the
applicable countermeasures against them and their deficiencies
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