Title: Modular construction of model partitioning processes for parallel logic simulation

Authors: Klaus Hering, Gudula Runger, Sven Trautmann

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, Leipzig University of Applied Sciences, 04251 Leipzig, Germany. ' Department of Computer Science, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09111 Chemnitz, Germany. ' Department of Computer Science, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09111 Chemnitz, Germany

Abstract: Logic simulation of complex VLSI models is very time consuming. Simulation speed can be increased by model partitioning and assigning the resulting parts to simulator instances which cooperate over a loosely coupled system. We have developed a distributed framework, parallelMAP, that implements a hierarchical model partitioning strategy. It can serve both as production environment in VLSI design and as an experimental test bed for algorithm development. In this paper, we describe the possibilities that parallelMAP offers for the modular construction of partitioning processes, starting from basic sequential and parallel modules. Experimental experiences refer to IBM processor models comprising from 1.5 x 10⁵ to 2.5 x 10⁶ elements at gate level.

Keywords: VLSI design; logic simulation; parallel simulation; hierarchical model partitioning; partition valuation; modular construction; verification.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCSE.2005.008908

International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering, 2005 Vol.1 No.1, pp.22 - 33

Published online: 02 Feb 2006 *

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