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Assertion-based verification of a 32 thread SPARC™ CMT microprocessor

Published: 08 June 2008 Publication History

Abstract

Exhaustive property checking, design defect isolation and functional coverage measurement are some of the key challenges of design verification. This paper describes how an assertion based approach successfully addressed these challenges for the verification of an enterprise class chip-multi-threaded (CMT) SPARC™ microprocessor. Methodology and experiences are discussed and recommendations are made on how to incorporate this into the design verification process. Experience with using assertion checks for formal verification as well as simulation based verification is presented, which is part of over 100 person year design verification effort.

References

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M. Tremblay and S. Chaudhry, "A Third Generation 65nm, 16-core, 32Thread +32 Scout Threads CMT SPARC Processor", Proc. of ISSCC, pp 3--4, 2008.
[2]
P. Chatterjee, "Streamline Verification Process with Formal Property Verification to Meet Highly Compressed Design Cycle", Proc. of DAC, 2005.
[3]
B. Turumella et al., "Design Verification of a Super-Scalar RISC Processor", Proc. of FTCS-25, 1995.
[4]
H. Foster, "Property Specification: The key to an assertion based platform", Electronic Design Processes (EDP), April 2003.
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J. Andersen, "Leveraging Assertion Based Verification by using Magellan", SNUG Boston, 2005.
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A. Gupta, "Assertion-based Verification Turns the Corner," IEEE Design & Test of Computers, vol. 19, no. 4, July 2002.
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C. Chuang et al, "Hybrid Approach to Faster Functional Verification with Full Visibility", IEEE Design & Test of Computers, Volume 24, Issue 2, March-April 2007.
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R. Bentley, "Validating the Intel Pentium 4 Microprocessor", Intel Technology Journal, Volume 5, Issue 1, February 2001.
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M. Joshi, "Techniques for maximizing Assertion-based Verification throughput in Acceleration and Emulation", Cadence User Forums, DOI= http://www.cdnusers.org/Portals/0/cdnlive/na2006/PNP/PNP_403/403_paper.pdf
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  • (2023)Automated Generation of Security Assertions for RTL ModelsACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems10.1145/356580119:1(1-27)Online publication date: 19-Jan-2023
  • (2022)A Survey on Assertion-based Hardware VerificationACM Computing Surveys10.1145/3510578Online publication date: 28-Jan-2022
  • (2017)RTLcheckProceedings of the 50th Annual IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture10.1145/3123939.3124536(463-476)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2017
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  1. Assertion-based verification of a 32 thread SPARC™ CMT microprocessor

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    DAC '08: Proceedings of the 45th annual Design Automation Conference
    June 2008
    993 pages
    ISBN:9781605581156
    DOI:10.1145/1391469
    • General Chair:
    • Limor Fix
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Publication History

    Published: 08 June 2008

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    Author Tags

    1. assertions
    2. coverage
    3. multi-threading
    4. simulation
    5. verification

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    Overall Acceptance Rate 1,770 of 5,499 submissions, 32%

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    Cited By

    View all
    • (2023)Automated Generation of Security Assertions for RTL ModelsACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems10.1145/356580119:1(1-27)Online publication date: 19-Jan-2023
    • (2022)A Survey on Assertion-based Hardware VerificationACM Computing Surveys10.1145/3510578Online publication date: 28-Jan-2022
    • (2017)RTLcheckProceedings of the 50th Annual IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture10.1145/3123939.3124536(463-476)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2017
    • (2016)Assertion-Based VerificationElectronic Design Automation for IC System Design, Verification, and Testing10.1201/b19569-23(441-460)Online publication date: 14-Apr-2016
    • (2013)Research on HW/SW Co-Verification PlatformApplied Mechanics and Materials10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.380-384.2564380-384(2564-2568)Online publication date: Aug-2013
    • (2009)An introduction to assertion-based verification2009 IEEE 8th International Conference on ASIC10.1109/ASICON.2009.5351246(1318-1323)Online publication date: Oct-2009

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