Efficient Reproduction of Silicon Bug Scenarios in Simulation Environments

Abstract

The complexity of verifying chip architectures has grown immensely, driven by intricate features and deeply pipelined designs, which expand the verification space to unprecedented levels. Despite extensive and reviews of test plans, many real-world bug scenarios remain elusive. Silicon bugs, in particular, are critical issues due to their potential impact on production cycles, often requiring costly engineering change orders (ECOs) or software workarounds that degrade performance. Accurately reproducing these silicon bugs in a simulation environment is crucial to validate design fixes or workarounds before implementing expensive hardware changes. However, reproducing these bugs is often a complex, time-consuming process that can slow down verification timelines. This paper presents innovative techniques to replicate silicon bug scenarios more efficiently, thereby facilitating quicker verification and higher confidence in design fixes.