qSAT: Design of an Efficient Quantum Satisfiability Solver for Hardware Equivalence Checking

TL;DR

This paper introduces qSAT, a quantum SAT solver leveraging Grover's algorithm for hardware equivalence checking, reducing quantum resource requirements and improving efficiency in circuit verification.

Contribution

It proposes a novel quantum SAT solver design using Grover's algorithm with optimized clause generation for hardware verification.

Findings

Reduced qubit and gate count in quantum circuit implementation.

Experimental validation on IBM quantum hardware.

Enhanced efficiency in Boolean circuit equivalence checking.

Abstract

The use of Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) solver for hardware verification incurs exponential run-time in several instances. In this work we have proposed an efficient quantum SAT (qSAT) solver for equivalence checking of Boolean circuits employing Grover's algorithm. The Exclusive-Sum-of-Product based generation of the Conjunctive Normal Form equivalent clauses demand less qubits and minimizes the gates and depth of quantum circuit interpretation. The consideration of reference circuits for verification affecting Grover's iterations and quantum resources are also presented as a case study. Experimental results are presented assessing the benefits of the proposed verification approach using open-source Qiskit platform and IBM quantum computer.