Novel Probabilistic Combinational Equivalence Checking

Exact approaches to combinational equivalence checking, such as automatic test pattern generation-based, binary decision diagrams (BDD)-based, satisfiability-based, and hybrid approaches, have been proposed over the last two decades. Recently, we proposed another exact approach using signal probability. This probability-based approach assigns probability values to the primary inputs and compares the corresponding output probability of two networks via a probability calculation process to assert if they are equivalent. The shortcoming of all these exact approaches is that if two networks are too complex to be handled, their equivalence cannot be determined, even with tolerance. An approximate approach, named the probabilistic approach, is a suitable way to give such an answer for those large circuits. However, despite generally being more efficient than exact approaches, the probabilistic approach faces a major concern of a non zero aliasing rate, which is the possibility that two diffe...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: TVLSI
• Authors: Shih-Chieh Wu, Chun-Yao Wang, Yung-Chih Chen
• Keywords: Exact Approaches, Probabilistic Approach, Probability-based Approach, TVLSI 2008