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.

翻译：我们提出一种基于规则技术的根本原因分析流程，用于加速系统级调试。本文阐述了该流程及其如何通过提供高质量的调试线索来降低调试工作量，包括从大量测试日志中提取工程特征的启发式方法，以及生成高效调试线索的数据分析技术。作为案例研究，我们将这些技术应用于电源管理（PM）设计特性Package-C8的故障根本原因分析，并验证了其有效性。此外，我们提出一种挖掘根本原因分析经验与结果以供复用的方法，以加速未来调试活动并减少对验证专家的依赖。我们相信这些技术同样适用于复杂硬件、软件及固件系统在不同抽象层次的其他验证活动，包括硅前验证与硅后验证。