Symbolic Simulation—Techniques and Applications

Symbolic simulation involves evaluating circuit behavior using special symbolic values to encode a range of circuit operating conditions. In one simulation run, a symbolic simulator can compute what would require many runs of a traditional simulator. Symbolic simulation has applications in both logic and timing verification, as well as sequential test generation. The concept of symbolic simulation has been discussed for over 10 years, but early attempts had only limited success. The recent introduction of more powerful, algorithmic methods of symbolic manipulation have had a major impact on the classes of circuits and properties that can be evaluated symbolically.