Recent studies suggest that postsilicon validation consumes more than 50% of an socs overall design effort total cost at 65nm technology. Post silicon peripherals validation diagnostics development, cpu, dsp and debug ip subsystem validation of iot and mobile soc for a tier1 semiconductor company graphics and display power validation, graphics validation, media power characterization and optimization, media decode, processing, encode pipeline validation for a tier1. The post silicon validation psv team at mirafra is a large group of technically strong engineers in the areas mentioned below. Apr 22, 20 3intel corporationpostsilicon validation increasingly larger percentage of timetomoney design advances result in flatteningshrinking schedules better design toolsmethodologies more focus on integration vs. Postsilicon validation is an essential step to verify the proper functioning and operation of an soc, post manufacture. A unified methodology for presilicon verification and. Fpga design, emulation and postsilicon validation top. A unified methodology for presilicon verification and post. Traditional presilicon verification is inadequate for difficult logic bugs. Electrical bug localization during postsilicon validation. Post silicon validation is the process of in which the manufactured design chip is tested for all functional correctness in a lab setup.
The challenges of post silicon validation are continuously increasing, driven by higher levels of integration, increased circuit complexity, and platform performance requirements. Postsilicon validation is a complex and critical component of a modern systemonchip soc design verification. Can someone share various aspects of postsilicon validation. Transformations for postsilicon validation tests must not adversely degrade coverage. Postsilicon validation is widely acknowledged as a major bottleneck for complex integrated circuits ics including modern microprocessors as well as complex systemonchip soc designs. Postsilicon validation is a highly complex activity, with its own significant planning, exploration, and execution methodologies. There are different aspects to post silicon validation of socs and in general for any ic chip. Post silicon validation is a vital phase of verification that deals with verification after the real silicon is in place. Postsilicon validation methodology in soc part 2 of 2. However, emulating hardware design has certain limitations. This phase also tries to check the functional correctness of the design but on the real hardware in the actual working environment. Intel corporation post silicon validation engineer. Various industrial studies indicate that the postsilicon validation effort consumes more than 50% of an socs overall design effort.
The postsilicon validation that finds these failures appears to be presilicon verifications ugly sister. Transformations for post silicon validation tests must not adversely degrade coverage. It takes more than 50 per cent soc overall design effort. Postsilicon validation methodology in soc part 1 of 2. Hence, debugging a failure in this environment is laborious and timeconsuming 1. Postsilicon validation is widely acknowledged as a major bottleneck for complex soc designs. Apply to validation engineer, senior hardware engineer, entry level engineer and more. Code coverage for postsilicon validation mehdi karimibiuki embedded linux conference 20 san francisco, ca 22 feb, 20.
Quick error detection tests for effective postsilicon. This step, also called whitebox testing, allows for high visibility into the design for debugging. Unified coverage methodology for soc postsilicon validation. Before a silicon device is ready, postsilicon validation tests can be evaluated using rtl emulation. The postsil icon validation also known as blackbox testing has limited visibility in the design. Test plan development starts concurrently with design planning. Post silicon validation is a major challenge for future systems. Postsilicon validation is used to detect and fix bugs in integrated circuits and systems after manufacture. It is important to take the pre silicon methods and algorithms to post silicon validation. Yerramilli, intel vp fab presilicon verification inadequate. The challenges of postsilicon validation are continuously increasing, driven by higher levels of integration, increased circuit complexity, and platform performance requirements. Post silicon validation psv of first silicon tends to be an ad hoc process, stitching together protocol testers from various manufacturers to create test cases and debug issues. Postsilicon validation is a major bottleneck in soc design methodology. Dac 2012 postsilicon debug june 7, 2012 public waiting for firstsilicon is not the solution to verification bottlenecks we need to shift as much as possible to the left while verification isnt perfect and scaling is an issue, postsilicon validation is not the only answer other presilicon methods augment verification.
Post silicon validation is deployed to capture the escaped bugs from the pre silicon verification phase. Presents case studies for postsilicon debug of industrial soc designs. During postsilicon validation, manufactured integrated circuits are extensively tested in actual system environments to detect design bugs. Bug localization involves identification of a bug trace a sequence of inputs that activates and detects the bug and a hardware design block where the bug is located. In postsilicon validation, test program inputs may be known a priori bentley 01. Mar 23, 2017 post silicon validation meaning post sili. Coverage evaluation of postsilicon validation tests with. Post silicon validation, on the other hand, benefits from very high raw performance, since tests are executed directly on manufactured silicon. Chapter 3 describes the architecture and the test bench of the hermes along with its testing results. Further, mirafra has got lab facilities and training sessions exclusively for psv engineers. Pdf post silicon functional validation from an industrial perspective. While i dont have insights into nvidia post silicon validation team, but i have been part of post silicon validation as well as interfaced with post silicon validation team at other companies. To identify design errors that escape presilicon veri cation, postsilicon validation is becoming an important step in the implementation ow of digital integrated circuits. Qed transformations may be optimized for the corresponding test inputs.
Bridging pre silicon verification and post silicon validation. Chapter 2 discusses about the post silicon testing setup of test chip 25 and the validation of the setup. During post silicon validation, manufactured integrated circuits are extensively tested in actual system environments to detect design bugs. Validation of the soc is carried out in both presilicon and postsilicon phases. For the complex designs of today, traditional methods for psv will be very time consuming but these measures are unavoidable. Post silicon test plans are typically more elaborate than pre silicon plans, since these often target systemlevel usecases of the design that cannot be exercised during pre silicon validation. She does not have the swish tools, beautiful methodologies and classy abstractions at her disposal like. Due to sheer design complexity, it is nearly impossible to detect and fix all bugs before manufacture. Postsilicon validation opportunities, challenges and recent. Running the same test in simulation and silicon may not produce the exact same behavior. Postsilicon validation is a necessary step in a designs verification process.
Before a silicon device is ready, post silicon validation tests can be evaluated using rtl emulation. Postsilicon validation, on the other hand, benefits from very high raw performance, since tests are executed directly on manufactured silicon. In general, postsilicon validation is the process of. Postsilicon validation is a complex and critical component of a modern system onchip soc design verification.
Presilicon addresses the validation of the hardware logic in its definition. Presilicon techniques such as simulation and emulation are limited in scope and. Postsilicon validation and its challenges functional postsilicon validation strives to establish if the prototype adheres to its initial speci. Postsilicon validation and debug prabhat mishra springer. It starts with the basic theory about how a simulation output is converted to a different format so that the tester can understand it. Post silicon validation is a major bottleneck in soc design methodology.
His research interests include embedded and cyberphysical systems, energyaware computing, hardware security and trust, systemonchip verification, bioinformatics, and postsilicon validation and debug. She wines at her more beautiful sister with tales of loss of system performance or odd intermittent failures. Describes automated techniques for generating post silicon tests and assertions to enable effective post silicon debug and coverage analysis. His research interests include embedded and cyberphysical systems, energyaware computing, hardware security and trust, systemonchip verification, bioinformatics, and post silicon validation and debug. Presilicon instrumentation and atspeed postsilicon validation tools can enhance observability and control of internal signals. Covers scalable postsilicon validation and bug localization using a combination of simulationbased techniques and formal methods. Postsilicon validation is not a new idea and has been used for many years in many places.
The pressure of maintaining aggressive launch schedules and containing an increased cost of validation and debug, require a holistic approach to the entire design and validation process. Request pdf postsilicon validation and debug this book provides a comprehensive coverage of systemonchip soc postsilicon validation and debug challenges and stateoftheart solutions. Critical design bugs escape presilicon verification and are detected only during postsilicon validation adir 11, friedler 14. Validation in the post silicon domain is predominantly carried out by executing constrainedrandom test instruction sequences directly on a hardware prototype. Postsilicon validation is deployed to capture the escaped bugs from the presilicon verification phase. New algorithms and architectures for postsilicon validation.
Pre silicon addresses the validation of the hardware logic in its definition. Validation is acknowledged as a major bottleneck in systemonchip soc design methodology. The post silicon validationpsv team at mirafra is a large group of technically strong engineers in the areas mentioned below. Functional validation fv is one among many methods used in. Even with very advanced presilicon verification tools, post silicon validation psv is one of the most crucial steps in ensuring the functional correctness of the chip design. A fuller discussion of post silicon validation, as well as the. Critical design bugs escape presilicon verification and are detected only during postsilicon validation adir 11, friedler 14, foster 15, keshava 10, mitra 10.
Postsilicon validation has significant overlap with presilicon design verification and manufacturing or production testing. Describes automated techniques for generating postsilicon tests and assertions to enable effective postsilicon debug and coverage analysis. These are often due to onchip asynchronous events and electrical effects. Prabhat mishra is a professor in the department of computer and information science and engineering at the university of florida. When a design passes from pre silicon verification, few initial prototypes of the. Jun 07, 2019 there are different aspects to post silicon validation of socs and in general for any ic chip.
Bridging presilicon verification and postsilicon validation and. Combining our expertise in fpga soc design verification and validation testing, we also offers a portfolio of custom verification ips for standard interfaces. Today, it is largely viewed as an art with very few systematic solutions. Abstracta key problem in postsilicon validation is to identify a small set of traceable signals that are effective for debug during silicon execution. Pdf structural signal selection for postsilicon validation. A structured approach to postsilicon validation and debug. Free interview details posted anonymously by intel corporation interview candidates. While ics are getting to market, the process is far from ideal. When a design passes from presilicon verification, few initial prototypes of the. Trends in fpga testing and validation signal processing.
Intel corporation post silicon validation engineer interview. Part 2 discusses elaborately the various methods and parameters involving post silicon validation. Post silicon validation is a complex and critical component of a modern systemonchip soc design verification. It accounts for an estimated 70 per cent of overall time and resources spent on soc design validation. Post silicon validation is used to detect and fix bugs in integrated circuits and systems after manufacture. Postsilicon validation is the process of in which the manufactured design chip is tested for all functional correctness in a lab setup.
Pre silicon techniques such as simulation and emulation are limited in scope and. A structured approach to postsilicon validation and debug using. Nov 19, 2019 the prototypes are mounted on the test boards and post silicon tests are performed. The goal of validation is to deliver a bugfree product by exercising every cell of the. Postsilicon validation and debug uf cise university of florida. To identify design errors that escape pre silicon veri cation, post silicon validation is becoming an important step in the implementation ow of digital integrated circuits. What is the work and scope of post silicon validation. At the same time, it poses several challenges to traditional validation methodologies, because of the limited internal observability and difficulty of applying modifications to manufactured silicon chips. Covers scalable post silicon validation and bug localization using a combination of simulationbased techniques and formal methods. To understand why postsilicon validation is challenging, consider a realworld postsilicon bug. So, this is very fast in comparison to the pre silicon verification phase. It includes a large number of interrelated activities each with its own nuance and subtleties, requires extensive planning, and spans the entire system design lifecycle.
Recent studies suggest that post silicon validation consumes more than 50% of an socs overall design effort total cost at 65nm technology. It is important to take the presilicon methods and algorithms to postsilicon validation. This solution provides modeling accuracy, high perfor mance, and remote access, simplifying the engineering task and dramatically improving. The beauty of post silicon validation is, it runs at real system speed in the range of ghz, as the tests are performed on the real chips. This paper revolves round the functional testing aspect of this phase. The pressure of maintaining aggressive launch schedules and containing an increased cost of validation and debug, require a holistic approach to the entire. Post silicon validation is an essential step to verify the proper functioning and operation of an soc, post manufacture. This silicon is used, among other things, as an intermediate and. Postsilicon validation opportunities, challenges and.
In this session, we discuss how to bridge the presilicon verification to postsilicon validation and debug. Pdf bridging presilicon verification and postsilicon. In post silicon validation, test program inputs may be known a priori bentley 01. Post silicon validation is a highly complex activity, with its own significant planning, exploration, and execution methodologies. Post silicon validation is widely acknowledged as a major bottleneck for complex integrated circuits ics including modern microprocessors as well as complex systemonchip soc designs. Bridging pre silicon verification and postsilicon validation. Pdf post silicon validation is the final process in semiconductor chip manufacturing. Bridging presilicon verification and postsilicon validation. They employ onchip reconfigurable instruments that developers can insert and customize at design time for atspeed data acquisition, performance monitoring, stimulus, and fault injection functions, but are ultimately programmed postsilicon, while the system is in. Post silicon validation is not a new idea and has been used for many years in many places. Nov 01, 2016 while i dont have insights into nvidia post silicon validation team, but i have been part of post silicon validation as well as interfaced with post silicon validation team at other companies. Postsilicon bug diagnosis with inconsistent executions. Postsilicon validation is a major challenge for future systems.
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