We propose a root-causing procedure for accelerating system-level debug using rule-based techniques. We describe the procedure and how it provides high quality debug hints for reducing the debug effort. This includes the heuristics for engineering features from logs of many tests, and the data analytics techniques for generating powerful debug hints. As a case study, we used these techniques for root-causing failures of the Power Management (PM) design feature Package-C8 and showed their effectiveness. Furthermore, we propose an approach for mining the root-causing experience and results for reuse, to accelerate future debug activities and reduce dependency on validation experts. We believe that these techniques are beneficial also for other validation activities at different levels of abstraction, for complex hardware, software and firmware systems, both pre-silicon and post-silicon.

SMLP: Symbolic Machine Learning Prover an open source tool for exploration and optimization of systems represented by machine learning models. SMLP uses symbolic reasoning for ML model exploration and optimization under verification and stability constraints, based on SMT, constraint and NN solvers. In addition its exploration methods are guided by probabilistic and statistical methods. SMLP is a general purpose tool that requires only data suitable for ML modelling in the csv format (usually samples of the system's input/output). SMLP has been applied at Intel for analyzing and optimizing hardware designs at the analog level. Currently SMLP supports NNs, polynomial and tree models, and uses SMT solvers for reasoning and optimization at the backend, integration of specialized NN solvers is in progress.

Symbolic Machine Learning Prover (SMLP) is a tool and a library for system exploration based on data samples obtained by simulating or executing the system on a number of input vectors. SMLP aims at exploring the system based on this data by taking a grey-box approach: SMLP combines statistical methods of data exploration with building and exploring machine learning models in close feedback loop with the system's response, and exploring these models by combining probabilistic and formal methods. SMLP has been applied in industrial setting at Intel for analyzing and optimizing hardware designs at the analog level. SMLP is a general purpose tool and can be applied to systems that can be sampled and modeled by machine learning models.