Synopsys gives equivalency checker a new look

Synopsys gives equivalency checker a new look
By Richard Goering, EE Times
March 18, 2002 (12:20 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020318S0028

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — In an effort to make formal equivalency checking more accessible to designers who aren't formal-verification experts, Synopsys Inc. this week will roll out a "flow-based" user interface for its Formality tool. Formality 2002 also promises to make it easier to set up designs for formal verification.

"To be broadly accepted, you have to have full-chip capacity and performance, and that's already been addressed by Formality," said Robert Hoogenstryd, director of marketing for the tool at Synopsys. "The next thing is to make the tool easy to use and adopt by nonformal experts."

Hoogenstryd said Synopsys has redesigned the Formality GUI based on usability studies with customers. The new interface, he said, is based on forms, and it guides a user through the various steps of the equivalency-checking process with menus specific to each step.

New debugging capabilities include cross-probing with source-code links, so that a user can click on a gate or a net and highlight the original source. Formality 2002 has a new color-coded, pattern display window that shows discrepancies between the reference and the implementation design. Also new are automated hierarchical scripts, which help set up the design for hierarchical verification.

To make it easier to read-in designs, Formality 2002 has adopted a "VCS style," using the same sort of switches and commands as Synopsys' VCS simulator, Hoogenstryd said. Also new is an "intelligent black-boxing" facility that makes it easier to designate black boxes, and more accuracy in RTL interpretation by identifying potential simulation vs. synthesis mismatches.

Formality 2002 will be available at the end of the month, starting at $58,800 for one-year subscription licenses.