Bug analysis and corresponding error models in real designs

Abstract

This paper presents the item-missing error model. It stems from the analysis of real bugs that are collected in two market-oriented projects: (1) the AMBA interface of a general-purpose microprocessor IP core; (2) a wireless sensor network oriented embedded processor. The bugs are analyzed via code structure comparison, and it is found that item-missing errors merit attention. The test generation method for item-missing error model is proposed. Structural information obtained from this error model is helpful to reach a greater probability of bug detection than that in random-generation verification with only functional constraints. Finally, the proposed test method is applied in verification of our designs, and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of this method.