GoGoTB: Agentic RTL Verification with Specification-Grounded Coverage Closure

[Submitted on 28 Jul 2026]

Authors:Xin Xin, Jincheng Lou, Junhui Li, Jinglin Yan, Panda Xiao, Di Wu, Haixiao Li, Weicong Lu, Weijian Fan, Xinyu Qu, Yuxiang Zhao, Min Yu, Zhixiong Di, Yibo Lin

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Abstract:Functional verification dominates integrated circuit (IC) front-end engineering effort, and a single missed bug that escapes to silicon can trigger a costly respin. Recent large language models (LLMs) offer new opportunities to automate this process, yet existing LLM-based approaches generate each component through independent single-turn calls with no shared context, leaving interface mismatches undetected and reported coverage disconnected from specification requirements. To address these challenges, we present GoGoTB, an agentic framework that achieves end-to-end verification closure through three subsystems: an agentic execution control layer, an evolvable knowledge system, and specification-grounded coverage closure. The execution control layer separates deterministic enforcement from LLM reasoning at every tool and stage boundary. The knowledge system dispatches methodology and design-specific expertise on demand. The coverage framework anchors every bin to a named specification behavior so that each residual gap has a diagnosable root cause and a targeted remedy. Tested on 8 register transfer level (RTL) designs without any human intervention, GoGoTB achieves 100\% environment generation success and averages 98.4\% line, 97.2\% branch, 97.0\% toggle, and 83.2\% functional coverage. No prior work successfully generates a complete verification environment or achieves meaningful coverage on the same benchmarks.

Submission history

From: Jincheng Lou [view email]
[v1] Tue, 28 Jul 2026 18:40:35 UTC (814 KB)