FPGA debugging techniques to speed up pre-silicon validation

Rajesh Udenia, Rohit Goyal & Neha Singh
EDN (February 7, 2013)

The increase in complexity of designs being prototyped on FPGAs has led to the increase in need for better debugging techniques. The design being prototyped on the FPGA may be used for performing validation, early software development, proof-of-concept etc. Thus, it becomes important that the focus remains on performing these tasks rather than trying to figure out whether an issue is caused due to a prototyping error.

Different debugging techniques may be required depending on the available design or type of task at hand. Adoption of proper debugging techniques can also reduce the cycle time for validation of design on FPGA.

This paper talks about some debugging techniques for FPGAs that can be adopted to speed up the validation process while at the same time highlighting some of their constraints. These debugging techniques can be used for the various challenges or issues faced during pre-silicon validation as discussed below.

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