WORKLOAD DISTRIBUTION IN FAULT SIMULATION

Simulation at the gate level is computationally very expensive. Parall el processing is one technique to reduce simulation time. Possessing k nowledge of the distribution of computational activity in simulation c an aid in parallelizing it efficiently. We present a new characterizat ion of the distribution of the computational workload in fault simulat ion. An empirical analysis shows that the workload distribution is cir cuit specific, and is largely independent of the vector set being simu lated. An inexpensive method to predict the workload distribution is a lso discussed.