A Simulation-Guided Paradigm for Logic Synthesis and Verification

This article proposes a new logic synthesis and verification paradigm based on circuit simulation. In this paradigm, high quality, expressive simulation patterns are pregenerated to be reused in multiple runs of optimization and verification algorithms, resulting in reduced time-consuming Boolean computations such as satisfiability (SAT) solving. Methods to generate expressive simulation patterns are presented and compared, and a bit-packing technique to compress them is integrated into the implementation. The generated patterns are shown to be reusable across different algorithms and after network function modifications. A logic synthesis algorithm, Boolean resubstitution, and a verification algorithm, combinational equivalence checking, are two examples of using this paradigm. In simulation-guided Boolean resubstitution, simulation patterns are used for efficient filtering of optimization choices, leading to a lower cost in expanding the search space. By adopting the proposed paradigm, we achieve a 5.9% reduction in the number of AIG nodes, compared to 3.7% by a state-of-the-art resubstitution algorithm, within comparable runtime. In simulation-guided equivalence checking, the number of SAT solver calls is reduced by 9.5% with the use of the expressive simulation patterns accumulated in earlier logic synthesis stages.