2 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Item Formal Modeling and Verification Methodologies for Quasi-Delay Insensitive Asynchronous Circuits(North Dakota State University, 2019) Sakib, Ashiq AdnanPre-Charge Half Buffers (PCHB) and NULL convention Logic (NCL) are two major commercially successful Quasi-Delay Insensitive (QDI) asynchronous paradigms, which are known for their low-power performance and inherent robustness. In industry, QDI circuits are synthesized from their synchronous counterparts using custom synthesis tools. Validation of the synthesized QDI implementation is a critical design prerequisite before fabrication. At present, validation schemes are mostly extensive simulation based that are good enough to detect shallow bugs, but may fail to detect corner-case bugs. Hence, development of formal verification methods for QDI circuits have been long desired. The very few formal verification methods that exist in the related field have major limiting factors. This dissertation presents different formal verification methodologies applicable to PCHB and NCL circuits, and aims at addressing the limitations of previous verification approaches. The developed methodologies can guarantee both safety (full functional correctness) and liveness (absence of deadlock), and are demonstrated using several increasingly larger sequential and combinational PCHB and NCL circuits, along with various ISCAS benchmarks.Item Formal Verification Methodologies for NULL Convention Logic Circuits(North Dakota State University, 2020) Le, Son NgocNULL Convention Logic (NCL) is a Quasi-Delay Insensitive (QDI) asynchronous design paradigm that aims to tackle some of the major problems synchronous designs are facing as the industry trend of increased clock rates and decreased feature size continues. The clock in synchronous designs is becoming increasingly difficult to manage and causing more power consumption than ever before. NCL circuits address some of these issues by requiring less power, producing less noise and electro-magnetic interference, and being more robust to Process, Voltage, and Temperature (PVT) variations. With the increase in popularity of asynchronous designs, a formal verification methodology is crucial for ensuring these circuits operate correctly. Four automated formal verification methodologies have been developed, three to ensure delay-insensitivity of an NCL circuit (i.e., prove Input-Completeness, Observability, and Completion-Completeness properties), and one to aid in proving functional equivalence between an NCL circuit and its synchronous counterpart. Note that an NCL circuit can be functionally correct and still not be input-complete, observable, or completion-complete, which could cause the circuit to operate correctly under normal conditions, but malfunction when circuit timing drastically changes (e.g., significantly reduced supply voltage, extreme temperatures). Since NCL circuits are implemented using dual-rail logic (i.e., 2 wires, rail0 and rail1, represent one bit of data), part of the functional equivalence verification involves ensuring that the NCL rail0 logic is the inverse of its rail1 logic. Equivalence verification optimizations and alternative invariant checking methods were investigated and proved to decrease verification times of identical circuits substantially. This work will be a major step toward NCL circuits being utilized more frequently in industry, since it provides an automated verification method to prove correctness of an NCL implementation and equivalence to its synchronous specification, which is the industry standard.