Assertion-based automated functional vectors generation using constraint logic programming

We present a novel approach to generate functional vectors based on assertions for RTL design verification. Our approach combines program-slicing based design extraction, word-level SAT and dynamic searching techniques. Through design extraction, vectors generation need only concern about the design parts related to the given assertion, thus large practical designs can be handled. Constraints Logic Programming (CLP) naturally models mixed bit-level and word-level constraints, and word-level SAT techniques solve the mixed constraints in a unified framework, which gain perfect performance. Initial states derived from dynamic simulation can dramatically accelerate the searching process of functional vectors generation. A prototype system has been built, and the experimental results on some public benchmarks and industrial circuits demonstrate the efficiency of our approach and its applicability to large practical designs.