[ont.events] UW VLSI Semi., Dr. Reeves on "Functional Verification of Digital MOS Circuits".

ylfink@water.UUCP (ylfink) (10/15/86)

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES

VLSI SEMINAR

                    - Thursday, October 16, 1986.

Dr.  Douglas Reeves of Pennsylvania State will speak on
``Functional Verification of Digital MOS Circuits''.

TIME:                3:30 PM

ROOM:              MC 5158

ABSTRACT

    A  major  task  in  implementing  a VLSI circuit is
determining  whether  the  design  is correct.  This is
usually done by testing extensively with a suite of CAD
tools, including switch-level simulators.  By contrast,
my  approach  is  an  attempt to prove that a design is
                                 -----
correct at the switch-level. This is done in two steps:
1)  the  function computed by the circuit is determined
by  analyzing  the layout, and 2) this function is then
compared  to a high-level specification of the intended
function.

    My  contributions  are  primarily  in  three areas.
First,  optimized  algorithms for analyzing the circuit
        ---------  ----------
are  presented which improve on the performance of pre-
viously published methods by more than an order of mag-
nitude.  Secondly,  static  analysis  of the circuit is
                    ------  --------
performed  to  eliminate repetitive work during sequen-
tial  verification.  Thirdly, hierarchy and replication
                              --------- --- -----------
are  exploited  to  make  verification of large designs
feasible.

    These ideas have been implemented in the program V,
and  tested  on  a  variety  of circuits to demonstrate
their validity.  This software is part of the SNAP sys-
tem,  developed  at  Pennsylvania State University, for
automatically  designing  and  validating VLSI circuits
for high-performance signal processing tasks.

                    October 15, 1986