Removing bugs from silicon - The role of the Digital Verification Engineer
Alberto Allara, Massimo Vincenzi
(NXP)
DEIB - Conference Room "E. Gatti" (Bld. 20)
December 15th, 2023
9.30 - 11.30 am
Contacts:
William Fornaciari
Research Line:
System architectures
(NXP)
DEIB - Conference Room "E. Gatti" (Bld. 20)
December 15th, 2023
9.30 - 11.30 am
Contacts:
William Fornaciari
Research Line:
System architectures
Sommario
On December 15th, 2023 at 9.30 am Alberto Allara and Massimo Vincenzi (NXP), will give a seminar on "Removing bugs from silicon. The role of the Digital Verification Engineer" in DEIB Conference Room "Emilio Gatti" (Building 20).
Microchip design is a very complex process in which the introduction of functional bugs is practically inevitable. The impact of bugs, if identified after manufacturing the device, has very high costs compromising the competitiveness of the product. All semiconductor companies include in the project flows the discipline of Digital Verification whose mission is to find as many bugs as possible within a few weeks before the production of the device itself. Digital Verification Engineers play a critical role in product success by writing highly specialized software, more complex than the product itself as well as in parallel with its development. The verification software is also subject to functional bugs that must be prevented in every possible way, leveraging all the good design techniques developed by Software Engineering to maximize robustness, flexibility, reusability, applied in a hardware development context. In this presentation, we will show the object of Digital Verification and the techniques adopted in the industrial field to minimize/eliminate functional bugs on the critical line of the microchip development process.
Microchip design is a very complex process in which the introduction of functional bugs is practically inevitable. The impact of bugs, if identified after manufacturing the device, has very high costs compromising the competitiveness of the product. All semiconductor companies include in the project flows the discipline of Digital Verification whose mission is to find as many bugs as possible within a few weeks before the production of the device itself. Digital Verification Engineers play a critical role in product success by writing highly specialized software, more complex than the product itself as well as in parallel with its development. The verification software is also subject to functional bugs that must be prevented in every possible way, leveraging all the good design techniques developed by Software Engineering to maximize robustness, flexibility, reusability, applied in a hardware development context. In this presentation, we will show the object of Digital Verification and the techniques adopted in the industrial field to minimize/eliminate functional bugs on the critical line of the microchip development process.
Biografia
Alberto Allara - NXP
Massimo Vincenzi - NXP
He earned his Degree in Electronic Engineering at Politecnico di Milano in 1996. He started his career as researcher on Hardware/Software Co-Design Exploration and in 1998 he joined Italtel to research and develop new design methodologies and tools. In 2000 he moved to Ericsson Labs Italy working as Digital Designer in the telecom field. He started focusing on Digital Verification in 2006 and then in 2013 he joined STMicroelectronics as Digital Verification Engineer. Since 2022 he is Principal Verification Engineer at NXP, working as Verification Lead on high-end Engine Drive products.
He earned his Degree in Electronic Engineering with a specialization in automation in 1994. In 1996 he got a Post Degree Master at Cefriel in information technology.
He started his career as digital designer In Italtel in 1996 and he continued as digital designer in different companies till 2004 where in STMicroelectronics he started to focus his activity on Digital Verification. He spent more than 18 years as Digital Verification Manager in ST. Since 2022 he is Senior Principal Verification Leader in NXP where he works as verification lead for Battery Management Products in the e-vehicle market.
Massimo Vincenzi - NXP
He earned his Degree in Electronic Engineering at Politecnico di Milano in 1996. He started his career as researcher on Hardware/Software Co-Design Exploration and in 1998 he joined Italtel to research and develop new design methodologies and tools. In 2000 he moved to Ericsson Labs Italy working as Digital Designer in the telecom field. He started focusing on Digital Verification in 2006 and then in 2013 he joined STMicroelectronics as Digital Verification Engineer. Since 2022 he is Principal Verification Engineer at NXP, working as Verification Lead on high-end Engine Drive products.
