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Technology

Virtual computer chip tests expose flaws and protect against hackers

By Matthew Sparkes

24 February 2021

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Testing real-world computer chips is far slower than virtually modelling them

Sergii Gnatiuk/Alamy

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 conventionally 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, it can take…

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