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BhanuSingh_PhD_EECS_CE_THESIS_CHECK.pdf (3.11 MB)

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KNOWLEDGE-GUIDED METHODOLOGY FOR SOFT IP ANALYSIS

Singh, Bhanu Pratap
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1409326533

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, EECS - Computer Engineering.
Demand for increasing functionality in handheld devices is driving integration of more functions (IPs) into System-on-Chip (SoC) designs. The development of such complex designs poses new challenges to the semiconductor industry in terms of productivity gaps and risks meeting quality and time-to-market goals. In SoC design, these goals are critical as rapid advances in process and product technology have shortened product life cycles with a limited feasible marketing window. SoC design teams have been employing IP reuse methodology to increase their productivity and often integrate third party IPs in their system. Verification has developed into a major bottleneck in SoC design and has now reached crisis proportions. Verification involves building a complex test environment and the productivity gap affecting verification means that thorough verification of third party IPs is generally not done. In practice, there are risks involved in using a third party IP as bugs may creep in due to versioning issues, poor documentation, and mismatches between specification and RTL. As a result of this, third party IP specification and RTL must be carefully evaluated. The current state-of-the-art lacks a methodology, which captures the expertise of a design expert by providing knowledge representation, extraction and reuse schemes. New techniques are required that can leverage heuristic knowledge of design experts and uncover IP quality issues early in design cycle. Simulation based verification techniques can also be augmented by engineers understanding and knowledge of design. This work addresses the issue of third party IP analysis by providing a methodology to find correspondence between IP specification and RTL. In this research, a knowledge-based system is used to mitigate the risk of using a 3rd party IP. The methodology provides a technique to analyze IP specs and RTL, which are then cross-correlated to discover any discrepancies. The key innovative ideas in our approach are to use prior and trusted experience about designs, which include their specs and RTL code. Also, we have captured this trusted experience into two knowledge bases (KB), Spec-KB and RTL-KB. Finally, knowledge base rules are used to cross-correlate the RTL blocks to the specs. We apply our knowledge-based system to analyze a third party soft IP, provided by its RTL code description and a trusted specification document. The third party IP analysis involves a rule-based search process, which checks the existence of trusted design properties in an untrusted design. Our validation approach complements existing IP validation techniques and acts as a spec vs. RTL lint tool with a behavioral analysis capability.
Christos Papachristou (Committee Chair)
Francis Merat (Committee Member)
Daniel Saab (Committee Member)
Hongping Zhao (Committee Member)
Francis Wolff (Committee Member)
132 p.
Computer Engineering
Knowledge Base System, Soft IP Analysis, Expert System, Specification Analysis, RTL Analysis, Specification to RTL correspondence

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Singh, B. P. (2015). KNOWLEDGE-GUIDED METHODOLOGY FOR SOFT IP ANALYSIS [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1409326533

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Singh, Bhanu. KNOWLEDGE-GUIDED METHODOLOGY FOR SOFT IP ANALYSIS. 2015. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1409326533.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Singh, Bhanu. "KNOWLEDGE-GUIDED METHODOLOGY FOR SOFT IP ANALYSIS." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1409326533

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1409326533
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This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.