MVP: a mutation-based validation paradigm

A mutation-based validation paradigm that can handle complete high-level microprocessor implementations is presented. First, a control-based coverage measure is presented that is aimed at exposing design errors that incorrectly set control signal values. A method of automatically generating a complete set of modeled errors from this coverage metric is presented such that the instantiated modeled errors harness the rules of cause-and-effect that define mutation-based error models. Finally, we introduce an automatic test pattern generation technique for high-level hardware descriptions that solves multiple concurrent constraints and is empowered by concurrent programming.