Challenges In RISC-V Verification


Designing a single-core RISC-V processor is relatively easy, but verifying it and debugging it is a different story. And it all becomes more complicated when multiple cores are involved, and when those cores need to be cache-coherent. Ashish Darbari, CEO of Axiomise, talks with Semiconductor Engineering about using assertions and formal verification technology to find bugs and prove coherency i... » read more

K-Fault Resistant Partitioning To Assess Redundancy-Based HW Countermeasures To Fault Injections


A technical paper titled “Fault-Resistant Partitioning of Secure CPUs for System Co-Verification against Faults” was published by researchers at Université Paris-Saclay, Graz University of Technology, lowRISC, University Grenoble Alpes, Thales, and Sorbonne University. Abstract: "To assess the robustness of CPU-based systems against fault injection attacks, it is necessary to analyze the... » read more

Integration Challenges For RISC-V Designs


One of the big draws of RISC-V is that it allows design teams to create unique chips or chiplets and to make modifications to the instruction-set architecture. That extra degree of freedom also creates some issues when it comes to integrating those designs into packages or systems because they may require non-standard connectivity approaches. Frank Schirrmeister, vice president of marketing at ... » read more

White-Box Fuzzer With Static Analysis To Detect And Locate Timing Vulnerabilities In RISC-V Processors 


A technical paper titled “WhisperFuzz: White-Box Fuzzing for Detecting and Locating Timing Vulnerabilities in Processors” was published by researchers at Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Texas A&M University, and Technische Universität Darmstadt. Abstract: "Timing vulnerabilities in processors have emerged as a potent threat. As processors are the foundation of any computing s... » read more

FPGA-Based HW/SW Platform For Pre-Silicon Emulation Of RISC-V Designs (Barcelona Supercomputing Center)


A technical paper titled “Makinote: An FPGA-Based HW/SW Platform for Pre-Silicon Emulation of RISC-V Designs” was published by researchers at Barcelona Supercomputing Center and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Abstract: "Emulating chip functionality before silicon production is crucial, especially with the increasing prevalence of RISC-V-based designs. FPGAs are promising candidate... » read more

HW Security Bug Characteristics in Google’s OpenTitan Silicon Root Of Trust Project 


A technical paper titled “An Investigation of Hardware Security Bug Characteristics in Open-Source Projects” was published by researchers at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and University of Calgary. Abstract: "Hardware security is an important concern of system security as vulnerabilities can arise from design errors introduced throughout the development lifecycle. Recent works have pro... » read more

Modeling And Analyzing Open-Source SoCs For Low-Power Cyber-Physical Systems


A technical paper titled “TOP: Towards Open & Predictable Heterogeneous SoCs” was published by researchers at University of Bologna, ETH Zurich, and University of California San Diego. Abstract: "Ensuring predictability in modern real-time Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) is an increasingly critical concern for many application domains such as automotive, robotics, and industrial automation. An... » read more

RISC-V Ultra-Low-Power Edge Accelerators (EPFL)


A technical paper titled “X-HEEP: An Open-Source, Configurable and Extendible RISC-V Microcontroller for the Exploration of Ultra-Low-Power Edge Accelerators” was published by researchers at EPFL. Abstract: "The field of edge computing has witnessed remarkable growth owing to the increasing demand for real-time processing of data in applications. However, challenges persist due to limitat... » read more

EDA Back On Investors’ Radar


EDA is transforming from a staid but strategic sector into a hot investment market, fueled by strong earnings and growth, a clamoring for leading-edge and increasingly customized designs across new and existing markets, and the rollout of advanced technologies such as AI for a range of tools that will be needed to develop new architectures with much greater performance per watt. A confluence... » read more

RISC-V Micro-Architectural Verification


RISC-V processors are garnering a lot of attention due to their flexibility and extensibility, but without an efficient and effective verification strategy, buggy implementations may lead to industry problems. Prior to RISC-V, processor verification almost became a lost art for most semiconductor companies. Expertise was condensed into the few commercial companies that provided processors or... » read more

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