qSAT: Design of an Efficient Quantum Satisfiability Solver for Hardware Equivalence Checking
For hardware verification, this work offers a quantum approach to SAT solving, but it is incremental as it applies known Grover's algorithm with a specific encoding.
The paper proposes a quantum SAT solver (qSAT) for hardware equivalence checking using Grover's algorithm, achieving reduced qubit count and circuit depth. Experimental results on Qiskit and IBM quantum computer demonstrate feasibility.
The use of Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) solver for hardware verification incurs exponential run-time in several instances. In this work we have proposed an efficient quantum SAT (qSAT) solver for equivalence checking of Boolean circuits employing Grover's algorithm. The Exclusive-Sum-of-Product based generation of the Conjunctive Normal Form equivalent clauses demand less qubits and minimizes the gates and depth of quantum circuit interpretation. The consideration of reference circuits for verification affecting Grover's iterations and quantum resources are also presented as a case study. Experimental results are presented assessing the benefits of the proposed verification approach using open-source Qiskit platform and IBM quantum computer.