OneSpin Names Winners of Fifth Annual Design Verification Challenge
Contest drew participants from more than 20 organizations globally, emphasizing universal importance of hardware design verification
MUNICH, GERMANY – March 30, 2021 – OneSpin® Solutions, provider of certified IC integrity verification solutions for building functionally correct, safe, secure and trusted integrated circuits, has announced the winners of its fifth annual Holiday Puzzle. Each year, the puzzle highlights a different aspect of the importance of hardware design verification. This year, challengers were given a Verilog design and an accompanying stereogram image and were tasked with finding a 4-bit key that allowed the design to work as expected. The winners of 2020 contest were selected in three categories and are:
- The Fox Prize was awarded for the most interesting approach to solving the challenge – winners: Nithin Kumar Guggilla, Xilinx and Elchanan Rappaport, Veriest
- The Hawk Prize was chosen at random from those who provided a technical solution – winner: Chris Brown, Qorvo
- The Mole Prize was chosen at random from those who solved the visual portion of the puzzle – winner: Timothy Jennings, Northrup Grumman
The Fox category also included honorable mentions for cleverness that were awarded to the following:
- Keerthikumara Devarajegowda, Infineon
- Ratish Punnoose, Sandia National Laboratories
- Roshan Cherian John, NOKIA
Analyzing the Verilog design with OneSpin 360™ would take only a few minutes, but contestants were encouraged to be creative and were at liberty to use any tool(s) they wished. Participants could also discover the key through non-technical means by viewing the hidden image within the stereogram. View the original prompt at https://onespin.com/holidaypuzzle.
Winners were awarded gift certificates for Pixel Eyewear, and all entrants received a small token in the mail, just for playing.
Verification in the Real World
Hardware designs (just like repetitive patterns in a picture) may contain more than meets the eye. Even simple designs may have corner cases that are hard to detect by code review. The situation becomes more complex if third-party or legacy semiconductor IP are involved. The IP could lack documentation or even have deliberately hidden functions. Verification tools enable engineers to resolve these issues, and OneSpin’s solutions are extremely efficient in revealing unknown behaviors and bugs, even in one’s own design.
“At OneSpin, we are committed to helping companies achieve the highest standard of IC integrity. This year’s challenge highlights the important role verification plays in that effort,” said Rob van Blommestein, head of marketing at OneSpin. “Leaving unknown behaviors or bugs in a design, whether those items are malicious or not, could have devastating consequences. Being able to quickly and exhaustively verify the design or third-party IP is critical to delivering safe, trusted, and secure devices to the market.”
You can read more about the Holiday Puzzle and the winning entries in OneSpin’s March blog post at https://www.onespin.com/resources/blog/details/unlock-your-vision-and-a-bit-of-eda-history-1
About OneSpin Solutions
OneSpin Solutions is a leading provider of certified IC integrity verification solutions for building functionally correct, safe, secure and trusted integrated circuits. These solutions are based on OneSpin's widely used formal verification technology and assure the integrity of SoCs, ASICs and FPGAs. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, OneSpin partners with leaders worldwide in automotive and industrial applications; defense; avionics; artificial intelligence and machine learning; consumer electronics; and communications. Its advanced solutions are well-suited for developing heterogeneous computing platforms, using programmable logic, and designing and integrating processor cores, such as RISC-V. OneSpin's customer-oriented commitment is fundamental to its growth and success. OneSpin: Assuring IC Integrity.
Visit www.OneSpin.com to learn more.
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Media Contact US:
Michelle Clancy, Cayenne Global
Tel: 503.702.4732, Michelle.clancy@cayennecom.com
Media Contact Europe:
Annette Bley, Annette Bley PR
Tel: +44 (0)7973 801132, annette@annettebleypr.com
