Leveraging Design Static Analysis for Vertical Reuse in Functional Verification

The Portable Test and Stimulus Standard (PSS) enables higher abstraction for simulation-based verification through graph-based stimulus generation, promoting modular reuse. However, achieving vertical reuse-integrating block-level PSS models into top-level ones-remains a significant challenge due to the manual effort required. This paper introduces static analysis as a critical phase in automating vertical reuse. Static analysis techniques, including data and control flow analyses combined with Satisfiability Modulo Theories solver for conditions resolving, are applied to trace signal paths from the top-level design to its submodules. Experimental validation demonstrates the applicability of the static analysis approach to the execution stage of a RISC-V processor and its scalability and efficiency using a configurable benchmark design with varying design sizes and hierarchical levels. The findings suggest that the static analysis provides enough information about interconnections and dependencies in the top-level design to determine connections necessary for automating the vertical reuse of PSS models.