Real Intent automates Ascent detection scheme

Real Intent has enhanced its early functional verification product family Ascent to now include the first commercially available automated solution to ensure 'X-robust designs'.

The Ascent Path-Based Verification (PBV) product is able to automatically detect what are known as explicit and implicit X sources.

Explicit and implicit X (unkown) sources in designs can mask real design errors and cause RTL-to-netlist simulation mismatches.

Depending on coding styles, simulation results can be X-pessimistic which lead to unnecessary unknown values; or X-optimistic which results in known values when they should have been unknown.

Design and verification teams write properties to trap Xs or instrument 2-value simulation with random initialization to avoid X ambiguity in order to detect design errors.

However, these approaches take considerable amount of manual and computational resources without offering the complete confidence of what is known as "X robustness".

Ascent PBV offers a multi-faceted solution that addresses the problem through structural and formal analysis, as well as by augmenting simulation using Ascent SimPortal.

Explicit and implicit X sources are automatically detected. Innovative formal techniques are used to prove X-optimism safe designs. Ascent SimPortal can augment simulation to detect X-excitation, control X-pessimism, as well as eliminate X-optimism without loss of efficiency.

Real Intent claimed it is the first automatic and comprehensive solution to detect and debug design errors and RTL/netlist simulation mismatches.

Ascent PBV is available worldwide in August.