梳理机器学习在芯片验证中的应用与瓶颈,推动行业标准化。
Review of Machine Learning for Micro-Electronic Design Verification
- 从验证需求出发,分析机器学习在动态验证中的技术路径
- 指出当前研究难以落地,因缺乏统一评估标准和实际应用场景
- 建议建立开源数据集与基准测试,促进跨领域协作
微电子设计验证仍是器件开发中的关键瓶颈,传统上依赖扩充验证团队和计算资源应对。自1990年代末以来,机器学习(ML)被提出以提升验证效率,但多数方法未实现主流应用。本文从验证与机器学习从业者视角,综述了基于动态技术的微电子设计功能验证中机器学习的应用,为该交叉领域的新人提供入门指引。通过分析历史趋势、技术手段、机器学习类型及评估基准,揭示了以往研究未能广泛落地的原因。尽管存在大量有前景的研究,真实世界采纳仍受制于技术对比困难、适用场景不明确以及实施所需专业知识。本文主张通过构建开放数据集、通用基准和验证目标来推动该领域发展,并建立公开评估标准以引导未来研究。类比软件验证中的机器学习实践,提示潜在合作空间。此外,推广开源硬件设计与验证环境,可吸引更多非硬件验证背景的研究者参与微电子设计验证挑战。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Microelectronic design verification remains a critical bottleneck in device development, traditionally mitigated by expanding verification teams and computational resources. Since the late 1990s, machine learning (ML) has been proposed to enhance verification efficiency, yet many techniques have not achieved mainstream adoption. This review, from the perspective of verification and ML practitioners, examines the application of ML in dynamic-based techniques for functional verification of microelectronic designs, and provides a starting point for those new to this interdisciplinary field. Historical trends, techniques, ML types, and evaluation baselines are analysed to understand why previous research has not been widely adopted in industry. The review highlights the application of ML, the techniques used and critically discusses their limitations and successes. Although there is a wealth of promising research, real-world adoption is hindered by challenges in comparing techniques, identifying suitable applications, and the expertise required for implementation. This review proposes that the field can progress through the creation and use of open datasets, common benchmarks, and verification targets. By establishing open evaluation criteria, industry can guide future research. Parallels with ML in software verification suggest potential for collaboration. Additionally, greater use of open-source designs and verification environments can allow more researchers from outside the hardware verification discipline to contribute to the challenge of verifying microelectronic designs.
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