Synopsys, Inc.
HARDWARE SIMULATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IDENTIFYING STATE-HOLDING LOOPS AND OSCILLATING LOOPS

Abstract:

A circuit hardware emulation module is configured to identify oscillating subgraphs of an emulated graph, or to identify state-holding subgraphs of an emulated graph. The emulation module identifies one or more loops within an emulated circuit; generates an acyclic emulation of at least a portion of the emulated circuit, wherein the acyclic emulation is characterized by one or more loop breakers; generates a loop detector emulation of a hardware-based loop detector circuit based at least in part on a quantity of loop breakers n characterizing the acyclic emulation, wherein the loop detector emulation comprises at least one of an oscillation detector or a state-holding detector; and executes the loop detector emulation for a plurality of input values for the emulated circuit to generate an output indicating at least one of an oscillation status or a state-holding status of the emulated circuit.