Formal Verification of Arithmetic RTL: Translating Verilog to C++ to ACL2

David M. Russinoff
(Arm)

We present a methodology for formal verification of arithmetic RTL designs that combines sequential logic equivalence checking with interactive theorem proving. An intermediate model of a Verilog module is hand-coded in Restricted Algorithmic C (RAC), a primitive subset of C augmented by the integer and fixed-point register class templates of Algorithmic C. The model is designed to be as abstract and compact as possible, but sufficiently faithful to the RTL to allow efficient equivalence checking with a commercial tool. It is then automatically translated to the logic of ACL2, enabling a mechanically checked proof of correctness with respect to a formal architectural specification. In this paper, we describe the RAC language, the translation process, and some techniques that facilitate formal analysis of the resulting ACL2 code.

Invited Presentation in Grant Passmore and Ruben Gamboa: Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Workshop on the ACL2 Theorem Prover and its Applications (ACL2 2020), Worldwide, Planet Earth, May 28-29, 2020, Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science 327, pp. 1–15.
Published: 29th September 2020.

ArXived at: https://dx.doi.org/10.4204/EPTCS.327.1 bibtex PDF
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