A high-throughput and arbitrary-distribution pattern generator for the constrained random verification
Journal
IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems
Journal Volume
33
Journal Issue
1
Pages
139-152
Date Issued
2014
Author(s)
Abstract
Constrained random simulation is becoming the mainstream methodology to verify system-wide properties in functional verification. It is a must to develop a high-throughput constrained random pattern generator, which is able to support arbitrary distribution. In this paper, we propose a novel range-splitting heuristic and a solution-density estimation technique to conquer the challenges of random pattern generators proposed in the recent literature. The solution densities can significantly increase by pruning infeasible subspaces. On the other hand, the estimated solution densities stored on a range-splitting tree statistically predict the distribution of solutions. Therefore, the generated patterns are ensured to meet the desired distribution with high throughput. Experimental results show that our framework achieves more than 10X speedup on average when compared to a commercial generator.
Type
journal article