Simulation using code-perturbation: black- and white-box approach

This paper presents a new approach in simulation-based hardware verification, which uses application programs as the test inputs. The approach perturbs the program-control-flow during the simulation to exhaust all branching possibilities in a verification program. It keeps the structure of the verification program at code-segment level and takes significantly less time than the straightforward simulation approach does. This approach can be further classified into two categories: the black-box approach and the white-box approach. The black-box approach can be applied to a wide range of programs. It is a cost-efficient method for verifying the integrated model of the hardware/software systems. On the other hand, the white-box approach can be used to retain the correct software state (the hardware state seen by the software) during a simulation.