New Certitude Detection Algorithm Prioritizes Faults for Early Identification of Big Weaknesses

The Certitude™ Functional Qualification System identifies holes and weaknesses in the verification environment that can let RTL bugs slip through the process undetected. With the recent release of version 2010.04 in April, Certitude applies a new fault detection algorithm that prioritizes faults prior to qualification to enable early identification of big weaknesses in the verification environment and support an efficient incremental qualification methodology.

Certitude's built-in fault prioritization is based on years of research and real-world experience that have shown that "not all faults are created equal", with certain faults much more likely than others to expose serious verification holes that can allow RTL bugs to go unnoticed. The proprietary prioritization algorithm automatically assigns a fault to one of several "fault classes" based on a combination of structural and functional characteristics. Certitude then qualifies the faults in priority-order by class and presents the results to the user in similar fashion (see Figure 1).

Figure 1:  Fault status report organized by fault class in priority-order

Users are encouraged to analyze and fix problems related to high-priority faults before qualifying faults in lower-priority classes.  This incremental methodology enables early identification and resolution of serious verification holes and weakness and provides immediate value as the fixes (additional checkers, enhanced test scenarios, etc) are checked into the regression environment.  Fixing the “big problems” first also tends to correct many related problems that would otherwise be found during later qualification runs.  This reduces the analysis effort and makes the whole process more efficient.

Please refer to the documentation provided with version 2010.04 and later for more details on Certitude’s new detection algorithm.