May-happen-in-parallel analysis based on segment graphs for safe ESL models

A well-defined system-level model contains explicit parallelism and should be free from parallel access conflicts to shared variables. However, safe parallelism is difficult to achieve since risky shared variables are often hidden deep in the design and are not exposed through simulation. In this paper, we propose a new static analysis approach based on segment graphs that identifies a tight set of potential access conflicts in segments that may-happen-in-parallel (MHP). Our experimental results show that the analysis is complete, accurate and fast to reveal dangerous shared variables in several embedded application models. Compared to earlier work, our approach significantly reduces the number of false conflict reports and thus saves the designer time.