Verification

Abstract

Verification is one of the key components of any system design effort. As opposed to device testing, verification involves analysis and reasoning on a computer model of the system before it is manufactured. It is crucial for a designer to ascertain the highest degree of confidence in a product's functional correctness before it is shipped. Economic as well as safety reasons make verification so central to systemdesign. Safety critical systems like pace-makers or other healthcare equipment that do not behave according to their functional specification may cause loss of life. Even for non-critical systems, failure after shipment will result in a product recall which means wasted money and a loss of reputation for the company. The importance of functional correctness, therefore, infiuences system design methodology. In each step of the design, a designer needs to make sure that the model reflects the original intent of the design and that it performs efficiently, safely and successfully. This is achieved by verification of each system design model.