Versatile Hardware Analysis Techniques: From Waveform-Based Analysis to Formal Verification

This book describes several versatile hardware analysis techniques that tackle existing and new challenges. These techniques cover different phases of the hardware development process, including the verification, debugging, and post-synthesis optimization phases. The authors introduce the Waveform Analysis Language (WAL), which allows users to code analysis tasks in the form of programs that run on waveforms. The book covers processor verification, formal microcode verification, programmable automated waveform analysis demonstrated for a large variety of previously manual analysis tasks, as well as netlist optimization leveraging formal methods. All methods are available as open source, typically include examples on RISC-V analysis problems, providing a strong foundation for the community.