Error traces in model-based debugging of hardware description languages
Bernhard Peischl, Franz Wotawa · 2005
In this article we address the fault localization problem in HDLs, particularly in VHDL designs. Our approach relies on the model-based diagnosis paradigm and, unlike to other approaches that rely on the design's gate-level representation, we accurately represent the program's syntax and semantics in a debugging model. This detailed modeling approach, however, may cause scalability problems for larger designs, thus reducing the model's complexity and size is a crucial issue. Creating a debugging model specifically for a given test case in terms of its execution trace is, although tractable in terms of the model's size, uneligible for source level debugging. We illustrate this result by a simple example and relate it to similar findings in the area of program slicing. Moreover, we present a solution to this problem and discuss implications on software debugging by means of our recent empirical results.