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STIMSMITH

Symbolic Simulation

Concept

Symbolic simulation is used in Burch-Dill-style microprocessor verification to compute an abstraction function by simulating a pipelined processor as it flushes instructions from the pipeline. In correspondence checking, verification reduces to proving equivalence between symbolic simulations of a flushed pipeline followed by an ISA step and a normal pipeline cycle followed by a flush.

First seen 5/25/2026
Last seen 5/26/2026
Evidence 3 chunks
Wiki v1

WIKI

Definition

In the evidence provided, symbolic simulation appears as a technique used in formal verification of pipelined microprocessors. Burch and Dill's key contribution was to show that an abstraction function, mapping microprocessor states to architectural states, could be computed automatically by symbolically simulating the microprocessor while it flushes instructions out of the pipeline. [symbolic-simulation-computes-abstraction]

Role in pipelined microprocessor verification

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RELATIONSHIPS

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Burch-Dill Correspondence Checking ← uses 100% 2e
Burch-Dill verification involves proving equivalence of two symbolic simulations of the processor.