SBIR-STTR Award

Development and Verification Tools/Processes for ASICs and FPGAs
Award last edited on: 6/20/2023

Sponsored Program
SBIR
Awarding Agency
DOD : AF
Total Award Amount
$4,033,998
Award Phase
2
Solicitation Topic Code
AF141-093
Principal Investigator
Robert Foust

Company Information

EDAptive Computing Inc

1245-G Lyons Road
Dayton, OH 45458
   (937) 433-0477
   info@edaptive.com
   www.edaptive.com
Location: Multiple
Congr. District: 10
County: Montgomery

Phase I

Contract Number: FA9453-14-M-0132
Start Date: 6/20/2014    Completed: 3/2/2015
Phase I year
2014
Phase I Amount
$149,740
With a constant push toward improving device robustness and reliability, our proposal is specifically aimed at fulfilling the objectives stated in the solicitation; we will develop and deploy tools, methods, and models for certifying that Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) meet safety assurance standards. ECI is pioneering innovative solutions to comprehensively specify, rapidly verify/validate, and accurately monitor complex systems and components in military and aerospace applications. As part of these efforts, we have developed significant expertise, building blocks, and capabilities to provide automated electronically assisted inspection through testing and results analysis. The proposed EDAptive REVEAL solution builds on previous Edaptive Computing, Inc. (ECI) knowledge and technology itself innovative to validate devices against formal requirements definitions. The resulting capabilities will result in a coalescence of multiple verification tools brought together in a complete, user-interactive, graphical based, application for testing devices. We will use the REVEAL platform to map requirements, run simulations, and apply formal machine-based verification to identify design problems and achieve the primary objective of ensuring devices have the greatest quality and margins of safety.

Benefit:
There is growing need for assured microelectronics as failures in weapon systems could have far-reaching consequences jeopardizing the success of a mission, the welfare of our nation and in the case of a nuclear accident, human life altogether. The microelectronics supply chain for defense electronics systems can use parts that come from a large variety of suppliers over a products life cycle, resulting in many opportunities to disrupt critical functions by inserting backdoors and malicious content. Design strategies and methods need to be improved to not only exhibit correct design functionality, but to also assure that only what is designed is implemented and nothing more. Verification process flows will be developed for this effort which will give the Air Force and its Primes a systematic method to screen for malicious alterations and defective components which are prone to fail. After a design has undergone thorough verification, system reliability will be increased and a higher degree of safety will be obtained. With REVEAL, failures in manufactured circuits which have not been completely verified will be precluded, there will be greater assurance that fielded hardware only implements its specified functionality, critical systems will be more easily maintained, and ownership costs will be reduced. We envision applications of REVEAL within the DoD, NSA, homeland security and market areas where an utmost level of safety is required from factory machinery, to commercial aircraft, automobiles or roller coasters.

Keywords:
verification, device

Phase II

Contract Number: FA9453-15-C-0448
Start Date: 9/24/2015    Completed: 1/30/2019
Phase II year
2015
(last award dollars: 2022)
Phase II Amount
$3,884,258

A planned upgrade of the US nuclear arsenal will involve the replacement of aging arming and firing systems with FPGA and ASIC-based electronics. Due to the increased complexity of these electronics, a need exists for highly rigorous design verification that can be performed to assure the safety and reliability of these systems. The ECI solution consists of maintaining a well-documented linkage between requirements and fielded components and assuring the component designs meet the requirements through innovative methods of model checking. In order to check that the design-under-test has matched functionality of a golden reference model based on the original requirements, ECI will continue development of two separate methodologies for checking models adhere to specified requirements. The first of these methodologies is the REVEAL Requirements verification tool which provides a structured framework to link high-level requirements to evidence that supports the fulfillment of those requirements. This evidence is comprised of derived requirements from the high-level requirements, model source code, and model-checking code. The second methodology is verification through formal methods of model checking and examination of the entire state space. This will consist of performing real-time logic checking along with highly structured fault-injection permutations for continued safe operation in adverse conditions.

Benefit:
There is growing need for assured microelectronics as failures in weapon systems could have far-reaching consequences jeopardizing the success of a mission, the welfare of our nation and in the case of a nuclear accident, human life altogether. Microelectronics can experience faults and subsequent failures due to a variety of reasons including poor design, manufacturing deficiencies, and out-of-spec physical conditions. Design strategies and methods need to be improved to not only exhibit correct design functionality, but to also assure that if faults do occur, the system will not enter an unsafe state. Verification process flows will be developed for this effort which will give the Air Force and its Primes a systematic method to screen for failure modes that lead to unsafe states. With REVEAL, failures in manufactured circuits will be traced back to faults that may occur in its functionality, which will save time and money by assuring safe and rugged designs before manufacturing. We envision applications of REVEAL within the DoD, NNSA, and market areas where an utmost level of safety is required from factory machinery, and aviation and automotive electronics.