Virtual computer chip tests expose flaws and protect against hackers

By Matthew Sparkes

Testing new computer chips for security and reliability often takes longer than designing them. A new method for modelling them virtually and testing them with programs traditionally used for software instead of hardware could slash development time.

Current hardware testing either randomly probes a chip to find flaws or seeks to formally test every single possible input and output on each computer chip. The first approach can easily miss problems and the second quickly becomes infeasible for all but the simplest designs. Either way, this can take …