Re: [sv-bc] RE: [sv-ac] RE: [sv-ec] Checkers & Formal

From: Gordon Vreugdenhil <gordonv_at_.....>
Date: Thu Mar 20 2008 - 07:27:12 PDT
Korchemny, Dmitry wrote:
[...]
> It might be more useful in terms of cross-vendor consistency
> to define how simulators MUST select the values of unassigned
> freevars.  Even something trivial like assigning them all
> the value zero or possibly having a separate RNG that is
> used.  Vendors could also extend things in other ways,
> but having reasonably predictable cross-vendor behavior
> would seem to be an important goal.
> 
> [Korchemny, Dmitry] My concern here is potential backward
> incompatibility. I don't see how to define RNG behavior in the current
> time frame, though it is a natural thing to do in the future. Therefore
> the only acceptable definition for cross-vendor consistency now is
> assigning a default value to all free variables (e.g., o to bit
> variables, and X to logic variables). If the RNG behavior is defined
> later, the new behavior won't be backward compatible. What do you think?

Hmm.  X doesn't seem to be a good idea to me; that will essentially
make it impossible to satisfy most semi-interesting dependent
freevar assignment assumptions since computations involving X generally
result in X.  In other words, won't X results in most cases just end up
causing most assertions to fail?  That would seem to be an unfortunate result
of standardizing on that approach.

I don't think that the RNG approach is really that hard, is it?
Why not just say that there is one system-wide RNG that is used for
all freevar assignments and that such an RNG is assigned as though
it were in a separate top-level module.  That should, I think,
preserve random stability even when the number of checkers
changes within the design.  In addition, since RNG results don't
produce X or Z values, I think that the likelihood of having
reasonable results is much higher.

Gord
-- 
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Gordon Vreugdenhil                                503-685-0808
Model Technology (Mentor Graphics)                gordonv@model.com


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Received on Thu Mar 20 07:29:51 2008

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