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arXiv · 2604.16571

EquivFusion: Unifying Hardware Equivalence Checking from Algorithms to Netlists via MLIR

Jiaying Zhu·Baoqi Zhang·Mengxia Tao·Kezhi Li·Hao Yan·Qiang Xu·Min Li
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Abstract

Ensuring functional consistency between high-level algorithmic models and low-level hardware implementations is a critical challenge, particularly as modern design flows increasingly span heterogeneous abstractions--from deep learning frameworks to hardware netlists. In this paper, we present EquivFusion, an end-to-end equivalence checking tool tailored for multi-modal circuit designs. Unlike traditional flows that rely on siloed tools or ad-hoc translation, EquivFusion leverages a verification-oriented MLIR lowering pipeline to unify diverse entry points, including PyTorch, C/C++, Chisel, Verilog, and gate-level netlists, into a common intermediate representation. This architecture enables automated, pairwise equivalence checking across diverse abstraction levels by rigorously translating designs into standard formal verification formats, i.e., SMT-LIB, BTOR2, AIGER. We demonstrate EquivFusion's feasibility to bridge the semantic gap between software specifications and hardware realizations, showcasing its effectiveness in facilitating "shift-left" formal verification for datapath-intensive hardware designs.

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Jiaying Zhu, Baoqi Zhang, Mengxia Tao, Kezhi Li, Hao Yan, Qiang Xu, Min Li. 2026-04-17. EquivFusion: Unifying Hardware Equivalence Checking from Algorithms to Netlists via MLIR. https://doi.org/10.1145/3803437.3806400

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