Automatic Completion and Refinement of Verification Sets for Microprocessor Cores
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol 3449, "Applications on Evolutionary Computing: EvoWorkkshops 2005", Lausanne (CH), March 2005, pp. 205-214
KEYWORDS:
Approximate Methods,
Evolutionary Algorithms,
Genetic Programming,
Micro-Processors,
MicroGP
ABSTRACT
In the design cycle of a microprocessor core, the unit is usually refined through a series of subsequent steps. To deliver a flaw free unit at the end of the process, in each stage a verification step is required. While it would be useful to automatically develop the set of test programs for verification concurrently to the design, in most of the existing approach verification is performed manually and starting from scratch. This paper presented a methodology for the automatic completion and refinement of existing verification programs. It shows a new technique for allowing a Genetic Programming-based framework to import an existing test-program set and assimilate it for further test generation. A case study is considered, in which a sample pipelined processor is used, and new test programs are generated starting from existing functional ones. Different metrics are targeted, and preliminary results are reported, showing the effectiveness of the method with respect to a pure random approach.
[SSSe05] E. Sanchez, G. Squillero, M. Sonza Reorda, "Automatic Completion and Refinement of Verification Sets for Microprocessor Cores," Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol 3449, "Applications on Evolutionary Computing: EvoWorkkshops 2005", Lausanne (CH), March 2005, pp. 205-214 |
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