FORWORD: Accelerating Formal Datapath Verification via Word-Level Sweeping

TL;DR

FORWORD is a novel word-level sweeping verification engine that enhances formal datapath verification by combining simulation and optimization, significantly outperforming existing bit-level and SMT-based methods.

Contribution

This paper introduces FORWORD, the first word-level sweeping engine for datapath verification, integrating simulation and adaptive optimization to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Findings

Outperforms state-of-the-art bit-level SAT sweeping engines

Significantly outperforms monolithic SMT solving methods

Effectively identifies equivalent datapath pairs

Abstract

Modern circuit design process increasingly adopts high-level hardware construction languages and parameterized design methodologies to shorten development cycles and maintain high reusability, in contrast to traditional hardware description languages. Such designs often involve complex datapath with arithmetic operations, wide bit-vectors, and on-chip memories, whose scale and level of modeling often pose significant challenges to formal datapath verification. Traditional bit-level SAT sweeping techniques lack the necessary abstraction and adaptability that are required to establish equivalence at a higher level. In this paper, we propose FORWORD, a novel word-level sweeping verification engine tailored explicitly to formal datapath verification. FORWORD integrates randomized and constraint-driven word-level simulations, leveraging adaptive optimization to dynamically refine equivalent candidates identified during simulation. Experimental results demonstrate that FORWORD significantly outperforms state-of-the-art bit-level SAT sweeping engines and the monolithic SMT solving method, thanks to its enhanced capability in effectively identifying equivalent pairs. To the best of our knowledge, FORWORD is the first word-level sweeping engine explicitly designed for datapath verification, offering improved efficiency and adaptability to modern circuit designs.