March 1, 2017
by Kevin Morris
Looking at the agenda for the 2017 edition of the annual DVCon - arguably the industrys premiere verification conference, one sees precisely what one would expect: tutorials, keynotes, and technical sessions focused on the latest trends and techniques in the ever-sobering challenge of functional verification in the face of the relentless advance of Moores Law.
For five decades now, our designs have approximately doubled in complexity every two years. Our brains, however, have not. Our human engineering noggins can still process just about the same amount of stuff that we could back when we left college, assuming we havent let ourselves get too stale. That means that the gap between what we as engineers can understand and what we can design has been growing at an exponential rate for over fifty years. This gap has always presented the primary challenge for verification engineers and verification technology. Thirty years ago, we needed to verify that a few thousand transistors were toggling the right ways at the right times. Today, that number is in the billions. In order to accomplish that and span the complexity gap, we need significant leverage.
The basic fundamentals of verification have persisted. Logic simulation has always been a mainstay, processing vectors of stimuli and expected results as fast and accurately as possible - showing us where our logic or timing has gone awry. Along the way, we started to pick up formal methods - giving us a way to prove that our functionality was correct, rather than trying to exhaustively simulate the important or likely scenarios. Parallel to those two avenues of advancement, we have been constantly struggling to optimize and accelerate the verification process. Weve proceduralized verification through standards-based approaches like UVM, and weve worked to accelerate the execution of our verification processes through technologies such as FPGA-based prototyping and emulation.
Taking advantage of Moores Law performance gains in order to accelerate the verification of our designs as they grow in complexity according to Moores Law is, as todays kids would probably say, Kinda meta. But Moores Law alone is not enough to keep up with Moores Law. Its the classic perpetual-motion conundrum. There are losses in the system that prevent the process from being perfectly self-sustaining. Each technology-driven doubling of the complexity of our designs does not yield a doubling of the computation that can be achieved. We gradually accrue a deficit.
And the task of verification is constantly expanding in other dimensions as well. At first, it was enough to simply verify that our logic was correct - that the 1s, 0s, and Xs at the inputs would all propagate down to the correct results at the outputs. On top of that, we had to worry about timing and temporal effects on our logic. As time passed, it became important to verify that embedded software would function correctly on our new hardware, and that opened up an entire new world of verification complexity. Then, people got cranky about manufacturing variation and how that would impact our verification results. And we started to get curious about how things like temperature, radiation, and other environmental effects would call our verification results into question.
Today, our IoT applications span vast interconnected systems from edge devices with sensors and local compute resources through complex communication networks to cloud-based computing and storage centers and back again. We need to verify not just the function of individual components in that chain, but of the application as a whole. We need to confirm not simply that the application will function as intended - from both a hardware and software perspective - but that it is secure, robust, fault-tolerant, and stable. We need to assure that performance - throughput and latency - are within acceptable limits, and that power consumption is minimized. This problem far exceeds the scope of the current notion of verification in our industry.
Our definition of correct behavior is growing increasingly fuzzy over time as well. For example, determining whether a processed video stream looks good is almost impossible from a programmatic perspective. The only reliable metric we have is human eyes subjectively staring at a screen. There are many more metrics for system success that have followed similar subjectivity issues. As our digital applications interact more and more directly and intimately with our human, emotional, analog world, our ability to boil verification down to a known set of zeros and ones slips ever farther from our grasp.
The increasing dominance of big data and AI-based algorithms further complicate the real-world verification picture. When the behavior of both hardware and software is too complex to model, it is far too complex to completely verify. Until some radical breakthrough occurs in the science of verification itself, we will have to be content to verify components and subsystems along fairly narrow axes and hope that confirming the quality of the flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and baking soda somehow verifies the deliciousness of the cookie.
There is no question that Moores Law is slowly grinding to a halt. And, while that halt may give us a chance to grab a breath from the Moores Law verification treadmill, it will by no means bring an end to our verification challenges. The fact is - if Moores Law ends today, we can already build systems far too complex to verify. If your career is in verification, and you are competent, your job security future looks pretty rosy.
But this may highlight a fundamental issue with our whole notion of verification. Verification somewhat tacitly assumes a waterfall development model. It presupposes that we design a new thing, then we verify our design, then we make and deploy the thing that we developed and verified. However, software development (and Id argue that the development of all complex hardware/software applications such as those currently being created for IoT) follows something much more akin to agile development - where verification is a continual ongoing process as the applications and systems evolve over time after their initial deployment.
So, lets challenge our notion of the scope and purpose of verification. Lets think about how verification serves our customers and our business interests. Lets re-evaluate our metrics for success. Lets consider how the development and deployment of products and services has changed the role of verification. Lets think about how our technological systems have begun to invert - where applications now span large numbers of diverse systems, rather than being contained within one. Moores Law may end, but our real work in verification has just begun.
EDA. Semiconductor.
More here:
Expanding the Scope of Verification - EE Journal
- HD Moores Law - Video - July 24th, 2012 [July 24th, 2012]
- Moores Law - Transistor Graph - Video - July 24th, 2012 [July 24th, 2012]
- Moores Lane road construction project begins - October 2nd, 2012 [October 2nd, 2012]
- Orono man totals pickup while reaching for cellphone - October 2nd, 2012 [October 2nd, 2012]
- 2 in Charlotte face fake ID charges - October 4th, 2012 [October 4th, 2012]
- Why there may be more to computing than Moores Law - October 11th, 2012 [October 11th, 2012]
- VR pioneer invents 'illumination-as-a-service' - October 12th, 2012 [October 12th, 2012]
- What is reality...M theory vs Moores law creating real universe vs creating a virtual one - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- The Rayz/Moores Law @ Put-in-Bay Final Countdown - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Moores Law @ Beer Barrel Put-in-Bay Hip Hop Medley - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Good explanation of the singularity - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- What you MUST know about the future - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Computer Apple 1 How to tell value KK4WW - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Rise of the transapients - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Moores Law Music Performing Bruce Springsteen - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Moore's Law Ice Cream Man - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Moores Law performs Vehicle at PIB - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Explaining Moores Law [HD] - MOCustoms.co.uk - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Global Challenge Part Fifty - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Towards next-generation devices through computer nanomaterial design for semiconductor spintronics - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Aiming to establish new spintronics - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Correlated electronic materials - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Energy Efficient Electronics: Searching for the Milli-Volt Switch - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Moores Law - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- Geeking out aero-style for a hundred bucks - Dan Shapiro - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- moores law visualization - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- how moores law affects conrad shawcross - Video - October 30th, 2012 [October 30th, 2012]
- The Everton Autobiography: How the Blues nearly signed the great Ferenc Puskas & when police action thwarted Goodison ... - November 2nd, 2012 [November 2nd, 2012]
- Letters: Guardian 'surrender' on self-regulation - November 7th, 2012 [November 7th, 2012]
- Academics take issue with Guardian editorial on press regulation - November 9th, 2012 [November 9th, 2012]
- Area deaths - November 22nd, 2012 [November 22nd, 2012]
- clip 2012 12 02 19;00;19 - Video - December 4th, 2012 [December 4th, 2012]
- Police news: Twice as many helmeted motorcyclists crash since law repeal, kids pair with emergency responders during ... - December 5th, 2012 [December 5th, 2012]
- Clallam burglaries are on the rise - December 6th, 2012 [December 6th, 2012]
- When exotic investments are too good to be true - December 10th, 2012 [December 10th, 2012]
- Top headlines: Man in custody in deadly drive-by shooting, Genesee County commissioner says judge can pay back ... - December 12th, 2012 [December 12th, 2012]
- Paul Raschke - Obituary - December 12th, 2012 [December 12th, 2012]
- Pitt County Grand Jury - December 17th, 2012 [December 17th, 2012]
- Connecticut school shooting prompts Genesee County schools, police to take extra precautions - December 18th, 2012 [December 18th, 2012]
- MEN Sport review of the year 2012 - December 18th, 2012 [December 18th, 2012]
- 'The police weren't laughing:' Text message 'joke' of gunfire frightens Grand Blanc, county schools deal with 'end of ... - December 20th, 2012 [December 20th, 2012]
- Top headlines: Schools closed in Genesee County amid violence rumors, Flint church holds candlelight vigil - December 21st, 2012 [December 21st, 2012]
- More than $1 million worth of drugs seized in Salisbury - December 21st, 2012 [December 21st, 2012]
- Anatomy of the school-closing decision: Rumors of violence led to all Genesee County schools shutting for two days - December 21st, 2012 [December 21st, 2012]
- Solo rock stars die sooner than those in bands - December 21st, 2012 [December 21st, 2012]
- Lecturer's private research not 'held' by university for purposes of FOI disclosure, rules Tribunal - December 22nd, 2012 [December 22nd, 2012]
- Liverpool Local News: Liverpool John Moores University to handout record £2.1m after trebling student scholarship kitty - December 26th, 2012 [December 26th, 2012]
- University and College News: Liverpool John Moores University to handout record £2.1m after trebling student ... - December 26th, 2012 [December 26th, 2012]
- Storm whips into Northeast bringing snow, rain - December 28th, 2012 [December 28th, 2012]
- Genesee County sheriff says fireplace blockage may have allowed carbon monoxide buildup - December 28th, 2012 [December 28th, 2012]
- Moores Law Experiment 2 - Video - September 18th, 2013 [September 18th, 2013]
- The Skanner Newspaper - Remember the Moores at Christmastime - December 20th, 2013 [December 20th, 2013]
- HowStuffWorks "How Moore's Law Works" - Computer - December 20th, 2013 [December 20th, 2013]
- Minneapolis Housing Trend Favors More Residential Home Office Use - December 31st, 2013 [December 31st, 2013]
- Kendal solicitor wins place with top law firm - January 1st, 2014 [January 1st, 2014]
- Prince George’s County home sales - January 3rd, 2014 [January 3rd, 2014]
- Obituary: Loyce Tapp - January 5th, 2014 [January 5th, 2014]
- More charges for WSU grad arrested with bombs - January 11th, 2014 [January 11th, 2014]
- Chemical weapons charge added to man with dozens of bombs - January 11th, 2014 [January 11th, 2014]
- Myths of Moore's Law - CNET News - January 16th, 2014 [January 16th, 2014]
- Team 10 saves war medals from auction - January 22nd, 2014 [January 22nd, 2014]
- Dad who abducted kids, fled to Cuba found insane - January 23rd, 2014 [January 23rd, 2014]
- Calendar: Jan. 23 to 26 - January 23rd, 2014 [January 23rd, 2014]
- After baby's death in Perry County, parents seek answers - January 23rd, 2014 [January 23rd, 2014]
- Simulations to enable novel lithographic patterning techniques - January 28th, 2014 [January 28th, 2014]
- Sullivan sued by victim’s parents - January 30th, 2014 [January 30th, 2014]
- Palm Beach murderer James Sulllivan sued to recover $13.5 million he was ordered to pay 20 years ago for killing his ... - January 30th, 2014 [January 30th, 2014]
- Group: Adult jail no place for juveniles - January 31st, 2014 [January 31st, 2014]
- Sotomayor Presides Over Moot Court Raising Privacy Questions - January 31st, 2014 [January 31st, 2014]
- Harbour Grace mayor under pressure over staffing crisis - February 4th, 2014 [February 4th, 2014]
- Colleens Dream Foundation Grants Over $12,000 to UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center to Fund Ovarian Cancer Research - February 4th, 2014 [February 4th, 2014]
- Crossbar nanowire chips combine to form tiny CPU for ... - February 6th, 2014 [February 6th, 2014]
- New Mexico Blocks Vote on Legalized Pot - February 12th, 2014 [February 12th, 2014]
- Calendar Feb. 17 to Feb.19 - February 18th, 2014 [February 18th, 2014]
- Calendar: Feb. 20 to 23 - February 20th, 2014 [February 20th, 2014]
- IBM Atomic Shorts The end of Moores law 00 12 - Video - February 28th, 2014 [February 28th, 2014]
- MIT Research Looks to Extend Moores Law - March 1st, 2014 [March 1st, 2014]
- Indiana Guardsman's bomb-possession charge moved to federal court - March 4th, 2014 [March 4th, 2014]
- Bomb case moved to federal court - March 5th, 2014 [March 5th, 2014]
- Will 100 become the new 60? - March 9th, 2014 [March 9th, 2014]