Low Power Verification · All levels

Power Mode Sequencing and Handshake Robustness: Reports and Metrics

Reports and Metrics for Power Mode Sequencing and Handshake Robustness.

Reports and metrics

Reports and Metrics for Power Mode Sequencing and Handshake Robustness is anchored on Handshake completion success under stress, P99 entry/exit latency per mode, and number of sequencing deadlock or livelock scenarios proven absent.. Convert observations into mechanism-backed and owner-bound actions.

A useful report explains why behavior moved, not only that behavior moved.

Evidence matrix

diagram
EVIDENCE MATRIX - Power Mode Sequencing and Handshake Robustness

+-----------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+---------------------------+
| Evidence                    | Tells you                      | Does not prove                 | Next action               |
+-----------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+---------------------------+
| transition timeline traces  | first failing LP phase         | complete root-cause ownership  | correlate with intent map |
| UPF-aware assertion logs    | contract violations by phase   | silicon product impact         | map to scenario severity  |
| corruption/X classification | actionable vs noisy failures   | legal transition completeness  | replay key mode corners   |
| save/restore snapshots      | state integrity movement       | isolation correctness          | pair with crossing checks |
| before-after regressions    | mitigation movement quality    | long-tail stability            | run full matrix           |
+-----------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+---------------------------+
  • Track Handshake completion success under stress, P99 entry/exit latency per mode, and number of sequencing deadlock or livelock scenarios proven absent. on representative low-power scenarios.

  • Include branch, seed, mode, and configuration metadata in every report.

  • Correlate observed symptoms with phase and boundary assumptions.

  • Call out contradictory evidence explicitly.

Low-power verification deep dive

Power-state correctness is a protocol contract: legal transitions, robust sequencing, and safe concurrent event handling.

Concept diagram

diagram
PST CONTROL LOOP

state request -> legality check -> handshake sequencing -> mode entry -> monitored exit

Metric graph

diagram
STATE RISK MIX

illegal transitions     ██████
sequence race bugs      █████
stable mode paths       ████████

Metrics and artifacts to collect

  • PST legality matrix

  • illegal transition histogram

  • entry/exit handshake coverage

  • mode sequencing anomaly log

Mini case study

A sporadic low-power failure closed only after proving a wake-versus-thermal race in PMU transition sequencing.

Debug branches

  • Validate legal state graph first.

  • Stress concurrent control events and asynchronous wakeups.

  • Bind fixes to explicit transition and owner contracts.

Senior review question

Ask: what exact low-power transition boundary failed first, and which artifact proves the closure claim reproducibly?

Key takeaways

  • Tie each LPV claim to a concrete transition boundary and one proving artifact.

  • Prefer minimal reversible fixes with explicit owner and rollback criteria.

Common pitfalls

  • Treating power-aware failures as random before boundary classification.

  • Waiving X-prop failures before proving impact and root cause.

  • Declaring closure without deterministic replay across key modes.

Report interpretation

Read metric movement with phase and boundary context.

A report is actionable only when it isolates first failing transition boundary.