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Verification with Jasper's Product Family

Formal Verification Unleashed!

Overview
Formal verification can be a powerful addition to a verification team's tool set. Compared with simulation, formal provides significantly higher clarity of verification results. Instead of relying on complicated testbench coding and incomplete vector sets, formal verification mathematically analyzes all possible input sequences to ensure the most complete results possible in verification today. JasperGold® Formal Verification covers the most logic, at the highest levels, with the most advanced formal technology for complete verification analysis. Jasper provides solutions for both low-level formal assertions (JasperGold Express Verification System) and comprehensive high-level formal properties (JasperGold Verification System). Both can be easily incorporated into your verification flow.

First Steps
A successful verification effort starts with planning. GamePlan™ Verification Planner from Jasper Design Automation enables systematic hierarchical planning of the most complex verification tasks. GamePlan Verification Planner makes it easy to integrate formal verification into your existing simulation environment with pre-defined planning templates and powerful analysis capabilities to determine the most critical sections of the verification plan. Verification plans can be linked to external documents and automatic HTML report generation makes it easy to share verification progress with all stakeholders. GamePlan Verification Planner is available for free download at http://www.jasper-da.com/gameplan/.

Formal ABV

Many verification teams use Assertion-Based Verification (ABV) assertions with simulation to aid in the debugging of complex system-level testbench failures. These properties can also be used with formal verification without modification. Reusing ABV assertions provides an easy way to introduce formal verification without requiring any new development of properties.

JasperGold Express runs formal analysis quickly and easily on ABV assertions. This "push-button" mode formal verification completely tests all possible logic values that can be applied to each assertion and identifies any possible conditions that violate the property. If any failures are found, JasperGold Express automatically generates a multi-cycle waveform displaying the complete path from reset to the failure, as shown in Figure 1 below. Using JasperGold Express, designers and verification engineers can quickly clean up RTL code in the earliest stages of the design flow where it is easiest to fix, without the need for costly testbench development.

Verifying Deep Problems

Figure 1 - JasperGold Express Verification System rapidly verifies ABV assertions

If a verification task requires more than just "push-button" formal analysis, JasperGold can help. Block level end-to-end proofs provide the most complete verification coverage available, as shown in Figure 2. In order to achieve full proof on these tough but important verification problems, start with a production-proven solution combining powerful technology and intuitive ease-of-use. JasperGold's unique Design Tunneling™ technology carves out design complexity to just the necessary logic required to prove the property. This unique capability makes JasperGold capable of solving proofs that no other formal verification tool can achieve.

Figure 2 - Block level end-to-end proofs provide the most complete verification coverage

Formal Regressions

Keep the formal confidence in your design flow throughout the entire verification flow. After solving ABV formal and deep verification problems, script the entire formal verification effort and run nightly regressions during late stage code changes. Formal verification ensures that any late stage bugs are caught and fixed as quickly as they are introduced, before they become buried in the logic and appear in post-silicon. Formal regression provides the greatest assurance that your final RTL coding changes are as valid as your early design.

Summary
Formal verification adds exceptional value at very little overhead for verification teams today. The JasperGold family of products provides the highest level of verification confidence in the formal space today. Achieve full confidence in complex design functionality! Ensure the design is correct! JasperGold is Formal Verification Unleashed!

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