Just-in-Time Verification in ADL-based processor design

Abstract

A novel verification methodology, combining the two new techniques of Live Verification and Processor State Transfer, is introduced to Architecture Description Language (ADL) based processor design. The proposed Just-in-Time Verification significantly accelerates the simulation-based equivalence check of the register-transfer and instruction-set level models, generated from the ADL-based specification. This is accomplished by omitting redundant simulation steps occurring in the conventional architecture debug cycle. The potential speedup is demonstrated with a case study, achieving an acceleration of the debug cycle by 660x.