The rIC3 Hardware Model Checker

TL;DR

rIC3 is a highly efficient, modular hardware model checker based on IC3, demonstrating superior performance and scalability in hardware verification tasks, including industrial RTL designs, with recent optimizations and competitive results.

Contribution

Introducing rIC3, a novel bit-level hardware model checker with optimized algorithms and implementation, excelling in hardware verification competitions and supporting industrial RTL verification.

Findings

rIC3 achieved top performance in hardware model checking competitions.

The tool demonstrated significant improvements in efficiency and scalability.

rIC3's modular design facilitates easy modification and extension.

Abstract

In this paper, we present rIC3, an efficient bit-level hardware model checker primarily based on the IC3 algorithm. It boasts a highly efficient implementation and integrates several recently proposed optimizations, such as the specifically optimized SAT solver, dynamically adjustment of generalization strategies, and the use of predicates with internal signals, among others. As a first-time participant in the Hardware Model Checking Competition, rIC3 was independently evaluated as the best-performing tool, not only in the bit-level track but also in the word-level bit-vector track through bit-blasting. Our experiments further demonstrate significant advancements in both efficiency and scalability. rIC3 can also serve as a backend for verifying industrial RTL designs using SymbiYosys. Additionally, the source code of rIC3 is highly modular, with the IC3 algorithm module being particularly concise, making it an academic platform that is easy to modify and extend.