S2C showcased FPGA prototyping and AI-assisted debugging at the sixth RISC-V Summit China, outlining how developers can validate complex processor designs and begin software development before first silicon. Its demonstrations connected three stages of that effort: running substantial RISC-V systems on FPGA hardware,… Read More
Sirish Munipalli is Co-Founder and CTO of Moores Lab AI, where he leads the development of agentic AI for chip design verification, including SpecAgent(tm), the company’s specification and modeling platform. He has spent about 15 years designing and verifying complex silicon: FPGA prototyping at Intel, post-silicon validation… Read More
Modern system-on-chip (SoC) and application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs are extraordinarily complex. They may combine processors, accelerators, memory controllers, high-speed interfaces, security functions, and millions—or even billions—of logic gates. Verifying these systems entirely through … Read More
Preamble
Hardware-assisted verification (HAV) platforms, including hardware emulators and FPGA-based prototyping systems, are the two dominant methodologies for validating long workloads on complex System-on-Chip (SoC) designs before tape-out. HAV sits within a broader continuum of verification engines: simulation… Read More
For modern SoC teams, “shift left” no longer means finding a few more RTL bugs before tape-out. It means moving meaningful system validation earlier—far enough left that firmware, operating systems, drivers, applications, and external interfaces can be exercised before first silicon arrives. This change is essential as software… Read More
For the past decade, the semiconductor industry has been moving in one direction: shift-left, specifically, shifting more validation into the pre-silicon phase. The idea was straightforward: if software ultimately determines how a system behaves, then software should become a primary vehicle for verification.
The industry… Read More
As semiconductor designs continue to grow in complexity, FPGA prototyping has become an essential component of modern pre-silicon validation strategies. While FPGA capacity and gate-count equivalence often dominate discussions around prototyping platforms, the true value of an FPGA prototype lies elsewhere: its ability… Read More
FPGA prototyping and hardware emulation originated from two independent demands that emerged at roughly the same time, namely, the necessity to implement digital designs in reconfigurable hardware. This was conceivable given the newly introduced field programmable gate array (FPGA) device.
Yet from the very beginning they… Read More
The 40-Year Evolution of Hardware-Assisted Verification — From In-Circuit Emulation to AI-Era Full-Stack Validation
For more than a decade, Hardware-Assisted Verification platforms have been the centerpiece of the verification toolbox. Today, no serious semiconductor program reaches tapeout without emulation or FPGA-prototyping… Read More
At DVCon U.S. 2026, Accellera Systems Initiative reinforces its central role in shaping the future of electronic design and verification through a focused program of workshops, tutorials, and community engagement. As system complexity continues to rise across AI, automotive, HPC, and communications markets, the need for… Read More
