Fully Verified Open Silicon – Marno van der Maas, lowRISC CIC
Creating open source silicon for wide-spread use requires an immense verification effort. One major difference between software and silicon is that once silicon is produced, it is much more expensive to update. This is especially true for bugs that cannot be corrected in firmware. OpenTitan is the first open-source system on chip of its kind to provide a design that is not just fully functional, but also thoroughly verified in the way that the industry expects. Additionally, OpenTitan is governed in a sustainable and open way. In this talk, Dr Marno van der Maas runs through the many layers of verification from complete chip-level simulations down to block-level tests. As a part of this process, Dr Van der Maas takes a deep dive into how the enhanced physical memory protection is verified for Ibex (OpenTitan’s main core), and how it fits into the overall verification picture. Open silicon can learn a lot from open software in terms of fuzzing, continuous integration and testing. OpenTitan bridges that gap and addresses the unique challenges from the hardware perspective as well.
