Opportunities of using artificial intelligence in hardware verification

Over the last decade, usage of integrated circuits met an unprecedently spread in most domains of human activity. Processors are embedded in more and more products, consequently, request for their manufacturing increased exponentially. Since hardware verification is a very time-consuming step in electronics development, engineers make huge efforts to reduce its time by increasing automation of this process, and artificial intelligence is an ideal candidate for that job. Aligning to this global effort, advanced methods for improving verification performance are analyzed in this paper. Current research represents an important step before proceeding to implementation of artificial intelligence concepts inside integrated circuit verification process. Machine learning in verification can be used for multiple directions: generating code for driving full range of stimuli needed to bring verified circuit into all its functional states; analyzing test results; filling coverage gaps and list of examples can highly continue. However, a big challenge is to decide which parts of verification environment can best address needs of automation and which verification techniques are most suitable for supplying data to automatic code generators. In this article, some features of e language are highlighted as welcome bridges between hardware verification and artificial intelligence.