Improving gate-level simulation accuracy when unknowns exist

Unknown values (Xs) may exist in a design due to uninitialized registers or blocks that are powered down. Due to X-pessimism in gate-level logic simulation, such Xs cannot be handled correctly, producing false Xs that result in inaccurate simulation values. To improve gate-level simulation accuracy when Xs exist, we first trace the fan-in cone of Xs to check whether they are real. For the Xs that are not real, we extract small sub-circuits responsible for creating the false Xs. We then generate auxiliary code to repair gate-level simulation by replacing the Xs with the correct values. Our experimental results on commercial designs show that the proposed methods are both effective and efficient.