Cooley’s Report: Only Half The Story?

Every year John Cooley publishes a DAC “must-see” list – a veritable treasure map of good stories. While this list has served DAC attendees in the past, in recent years it has continued to miss an important segment of the ecosystem: the growing number of service providers.

Oski Technology is one such service provider. In fact Oski is the only service provider in the formal verification space, and plays an important role in promoting formal adoption in the industry. Formal can improve verification efficiency and productivity, lead to reduced project cost and shorten time-to-market. Since 2005 we have partnered with many leading semiconductor companies to tape out mission-critical designs and build up their internal formal expertise.

Each year at DAC, Oski continues to host exciting activities that few companies would dare to take on:

1. At DAC 2012, we put ourselves to a formidable live formal verification challenge and formally verified a design from NVIDIA sight-unseen, live at DAC. In just 72 hours we found 3 corner case bugs that were missed by simulation. A compelling story that garnered much attention and interest. John was invited to stop by and see the action first hand, and yet this event did not make it to Cooley’s “must see” list.

2. At DAC 2013, we turned the tables and put tough formal questions to engineers and managers. Participants and spectators enjoyed ice cream and popcorn and winners took home trophies.

3. This year at DAC 2014, our focus this DAC is on Formal Test Planning:

• “Step Right Up” Guessing Game!: We are hosting an interactive guessing game called Step Right Up in booth 2301. The goal of this game is to help our audience understand what it takes to do End-to-End formal verification so you can replace simulation. How long does it take to formally and exhaustively verify a block without the use of simulation? Try your luck to win prizes by taking a guess. We will provide some basic information about the design.
• Oski “Start Formal Right from Formal Test Planning” DAC Insight Tutorial: This workshop will be held on Thursday June 5 from 2 to 4pm where we will reveal the answer to the Step Right Up guessing game. All workshop attendees will receive a limited edition 25 oz custom water bottle to assist them in their journey of formal pursuit!
• Win a One-Week Free Test Planning Session: In addition, one company will be awarded a One-week Free Test Planning Session. Entries are due by May 27. Send email to marketing@oskitech.com.
• Oski Abstraction Models Demo boosts performance by 600,000X: See the Oski Abstraction Models demo at our DAC booth 2301, where we discuss Oski Formal Sign-off Methodology and demonstrate how Abstraction Models can improve formal verification performance by 60,000X! And whether we make it to the Cooley list next year or not, these are the kind of demo results we’d call a “must see”.

Look for the bright yellow Oski Technology booth 2301 near the entrance! See you at DAC!

Tags: #51DAC, DAC Insight, formal analysis, formal sign-off, formal verification

Category: Blog

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