US Patent 7124383 Integrated proof flow system and method

Integrated proof flow methods and apparatuses are discussed. Integrated proof flow refers to attempting both formal verification and nonformal verification. A coverage metric can be changed by both attempting formal verification and by attempting nonformal verification. Some embodiments of the present invention provide proof flow methods that integrate verification and nonformal verification (e.g., bounded verification, multi-point proof, and/or vector-based simulation) to prove one or more properties in a circuit design.