Assertion-based debug infrastructure for SoC designs

In this paper, an infrastructure for debug of complex SoCs that employs assertions is introduced. The proposed infrastructure combines traditional off-chip analysis techniques with on-chip at-speed debug facilities. The main part of on-chip debug hardware consists of data and transaction monitors. The monitor hardware is automatically generated by synthesizing the assertions that were used for verification and validation before manufacturing. We have integrated the proposed method in a system-level design methodology. By synthesizing various assertions from different kinds in a case study we have studied the overhead of our method.