Boolean Satisfiability in Electronic Design Automation

Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) is often used as the underlying model for a significant and increasing number of applications in Electronic Design Automation (EDA) as well as in many other fields of Computer Science and Engineering. In recent years, new and efficient algorithms for SAT have been developed, allowing much larger problem instances to be solved. SAT “packages” are currently expected to have an impact on EDA applications similar to that of BDD packages since their introduction more than a decade ago. This tutorial paper is aimed at introducing the EDA professional to the Boolean satisfiability problem. Specifically, we highlight the use of SAT models to formulate a number of EDA problems in such diverse areas as test pattern generation, circuit delay computation, logic optimization, combinational equivalence checking, bounded model checking and functional test vector generation, among others. In addition, we provide an overview of the algorithmic techniques commonly used for solving SAT, including those that have seen widespread use in specific EDA applications. We categorize these algorithmic techniques, indicating which have been shown to be best suited for which tasks

A Minimum Cut Based Re-synthesis Approach

A new re-synthesis approach that benefits from min-cut based partitioning is proposed. This divide and conquer approach is shown to improve the performance of existing synthesis tools on a variety of benchmarks

Error Mitigation Using Approximate Logic Circuits: A Comparison of Probabilistic and Evolutionary Approaches

Technology scaling poses an increasing challenge to the reliability of digital circuits. Hardware redundancy solutions, such as triple modular redundancy (TMR), produce very high area overhead, so partial redundancy is often used to reduce the overheads. Approximate logic circuits provide a general framework for optimized mitigation of errors arising from a broad class of failure mechanisms, including transient, intermittent, and permanent failures. However, generating an optimal redundant logic circuit that is able to mask the faults with the highest probability while minimizing the area overheads is a challenging problem. In this study, we propose and compare two new approaches to generate approximate logic circuits to be used in a TMR schema. The probabilistic approach approximates a circuit in a greedy manner based on a probabilistic estimation of the error. The evolutionary approach can provide radically different solutions that are hard to reach by other methods. By combining these two approaches, the solution space can be explored in depth. Experimental results demonstrate that the evolutionary approach can produce better solutions, but the probabilistic approach is close. On the other hand, these approaches provide much better scalability than other existing partial redundancy techniques.This work was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain under project ESP2015-68245-C4-1-P, and by the Czech science foundation project GA16-17538S and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic from the National Programme of Sustainability (NPU II); project IT4Innovations excellence in science - LQ1602

A Graph Traversal Based Framework for Sequential Logic Implication with an Application to C-Cycle Redundancy Identification

Coordinated Science Laboratory was formerly known as Control Systems LaboratorySemiconductor Research Corporation / SRC 96-DP-109 and SRC 97-DS-482DARPA / DABT63-95-C-0069Hewlett-Packar

Empirical timing analysis of CPUs and delay fault tolerant design using partial redundancy

The operating clock frequency is determined by the longest signal propagation delay, setup/hold time, and timing margin. These are becoming less predictable with the increasing design complexity and process miniaturization. The difficult challenge is then to ensure that a device operating at its clock frequency is error-free with quantifiable assurance. Effort at device-level engineering will not suffice for these circuits exhibiting wide process variation and heightened sensitivities to operating condition stress. Logic-level redress of this issue is a necessity and we propose a design-level remedy for this timing-uncertainty problem. The aim of the design and analysis approaches presented in this dissertation is to provide framework, SABRE, wherein an increased operating clock frequency can be achieved. The approach is a combination of analytical modeling, experimental analy- sis, hardware /time-redundancy design, exception handling and recovery techniques. Our proposed design replicates only a necessary part of the original circuit to avoid high hardware overhead as in triple-modular-redundancy (TMR). The timing-critical combinational circuit is path-wise partitioned into two sections. The combinational circuits associated with long paths are laid out without any intrusion except for the fan-out connections from the first section of the circuit to a replicated second section of the combinational circuit. Thus only the second section of the circuit is replicated. The signals fanning out from the first section are latches, and thus are far shorter than the paths spanning the entire combinational circuit. The replicated circuit is timed at a subsequent clock cycle to ascertain relaxed timing paths. This insures that the likelihood of mistiming due to stress or process variation is eliminated. During the subsequent clock cycle, the outcome of the two logically identical, yet time-interleaved, circuit outputs are compared to detect faults. When a fault is detected, the retry sig- nal is triggered and the dynamic frequency-step-down takes place before a pipe flush, and retry is issued. The significant timing overhead associated with the retry is offset by the rarity of the timing violation events. Simulation results on ISCAS Benchmark circuits show that 10% of clock frequency gain is possible with 10 to 20 % of hardware overhead of replicated timing-critical circuit

Investigations into the feasibility of an on-line test methodology

This thesis aims to understand how information coding and the protocol that it supports can affect the characteristics of electronic circuits. More specifically, it investigates an on-line test methodology called IFIS (If it Fails It Stops) and its impact on the design, implementation and subsequent characteristics of circuits intended for application specific lC (ASIC) technology. The first study investigates the influences of information coding and protocol on the characteristics of IFIS systems. The second study investigates methods of circuit design applicable to IFIS cells and identifies the· technique possessing the characteristics most suitable for on-line testing. The third study investigates the characteristics of a 'real-life' commercial UART re-engineered using the techniques resulting from the previous two studies. The final study investigates the effects of the halting properties endowed by the protocol on failure diagnosis within IFIS systems. The outcome of this work is an identification and characterisation of the factors that influence behaviour, implementation costs and the ability to test and diagnose IFIS designs