Structural Mutation Based Differential Testing for FPGA Logic Synthesis Compilers

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Xu, Zhihao, Guo, Shikai, Zhao, Guilin, Wang, Siwen, Ma, Qian, Li, Hui, Zhan, Furui
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866911170874572800
author Xu, Zhihao
Guo, Shikai
Zhao, Guilin
Wang, Siwen
Ma, Qian
Li, Hui
Zhan, Furui
author_facet Xu, Zhihao
Guo, Shikai
Zhao, Guilin
Wang, Siwen
Ma, Qian
Li, Hui
Zhan, Furui
contents Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) play a crucial role in Electronic Design Automation (EDA) applications, which have been widely used in safety-critical environments, including aerospace, chip manufacturing, and medical devices. A critical step in FPGA development is logic synthesis, which enables developers to translate their software designs into hardware net lists, which facilitates the physical implementation of the chip, detailed timing and power analysis, gate-level simulation, test vector generation, and optimization and consistency checking. However, bugs or incorrect implementations in FPGA logic synthesis compilers may lead to unexpected behaviors in target wapplications, posing security risks. Therefore, it is crucial to eliminate such bugs in FPGA logic synthesis compilers. The effectiveness of existing works is still limited by its simple, blind mutation strategy. To address this challenge, we propose a guided mutation strategy based on Bayesian optimization called LSC-Fuzz to detect bugs in FPGA logic synthesis compilers. Specifically, LSC-Fuzz consists of three components: the test-program generation component, the Bayesian diversity selection component, and the equivalent check component. By performing test-program generation and Bayesian diversity selection, LSC-Fuzz generates diverse and complex HDL code, thoroughly testing the FPGA logic synthesis compilers using equivalent check to detect bugs. Through three months, LSC-Fuzz has found 16 bugs, 12 of these has been confirmed by official technical support.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_17713
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Structural Mutation Based Differential Testing for FPGA Logic Synthesis Compilers
Xu, Zhihao
Guo, Shikai
Zhao, Guilin
Wang, Siwen
Ma, Qian
Li, Hui
Zhan, Furui
Software Engineering
Hardware Architecture
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) play a crucial role in Electronic Design Automation (EDA) applications, which have been widely used in safety-critical environments, including aerospace, chip manufacturing, and medical devices. A critical step in FPGA development is logic synthesis, which enables developers to translate their software designs into hardware net lists, which facilitates the physical implementation of the chip, detailed timing and power analysis, gate-level simulation, test vector generation, and optimization and consistency checking. However, bugs or incorrect implementations in FPGA logic synthesis compilers may lead to unexpected behaviors in target wapplications, posing security risks. Therefore, it is crucial to eliminate such bugs in FPGA logic synthesis compilers. The effectiveness of existing works is still limited by its simple, blind mutation strategy. To address this challenge, we propose a guided mutation strategy based on Bayesian optimization called LSC-Fuzz to detect bugs in FPGA logic synthesis compilers. Specifically, LSC-Fuzz consists of three components: the test-program generation component, the Bayesian diversity selection component, and the equivalent check component. By performing test-program generation and Bayesian diversity selection, LSC-Fuzz generates diverse and complex HDL code, thoroughly testing the FPGA logic synthesis compilers using equivalent check to detect bugs. Through three months, LSC-Fuzz has found 16 bugs, 12 of these has been confirmed by official technical support.
title Structural Mutation Based Differential Testing for FPGA Logic Synthesis Compilers
topic Software Engineering
Hardware Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.17713