Gopher Protocol Inc., a company specializing in the development of Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence enabled mobile technologies announced that it is conducting an extensive hardware and software validation of its MESH network system, prior to full system testing.
Gopher’s MESH network is a complex system that is targeted to be used in life-critical applications (security, military, autonomous machines, communications, and more) and, therefore, requires a systematic approach to verify and validate its functionality.
System hardware and software validation is an essential process when the system is to be used in a process or task that can have any effect on the quality, safety, efficacy of a product or product mandated data.
In order to manage the complexity of the system, Gopher is using validation techniques and methodologies in which functionality is verified by simulating and validating processes according to the system’s description.
Gopher is now conducting firmware (FW) and hardware validation of the time division operation and its synchronization with the system’s RTC (Real-Time-Clock). The main validation challenge is the sleep/awake up process given the fact that the system works in milli-seconds time frames. In order to enable fast, real-time response, the system was designed to work within very short time intervals.
The hardware (CPU, RTC, more) and on-board software need to be synchronized together in order to execute a decision when to listen, go to sleep, wake up or remain in idle state. This is a crucial factor of the system in order to maintain long battery life and efficient power consumption.
Gopher has a portfolio of intellectual property which, when commercialized, will include smart microchips, mobile and security applications and protocols, and supporting cloud software. Gopher’s system envisions the creation of a global mesh network.
The core of the system will be its advanced microchip technology that can be installed in any mobile or fixed device worldwide. Gopher envisions this system as a low-cost, secure, private mesh network between any enabled devices, providing shared processing, advanced mobile database management/sharing and enhanced mobile features as an alternative to traditional carrier services.
“We are now in system validation stage, prior to full system testing and this is the phase when we typically detect flaws in the architecture. Gladly, we are proud to announce that, so far, the system is functioning according to design parameters and the results are satisfactory,” stated Dr. Danny Rittman, Gopher’s CTO.
“A practical difficulty in the validation of advanced hardware systems is choosing the proper design abstraction level, which provides a trade-off between simulation complexity and error modelling accuracy. Our validation is performed at all levels of abstraction, from the system’s behavior, down to each module’s functionality. In order to validate the system’s behavioral hardware, we use an industry standard description languages, such as VHDL (Very High Speed Hardware Description Language), which is typically used to describe the behavior and structure of electronic systems, and Verilog (a hardware description language (HDL) used to model electronic systems). In addition, we validate the actual hardware to verify system’s functionality according to the architecture specification. One of the major challenges of such validation is the functionality of our time division system, given the fact that it is working within very small time frames, i.e. milliseconds.
“I always compare this system to an orchestra’s conductor who makes decisions about timing, which in our system equates to sleep mode, wake up and listening process. This type of mechanism has to work very accurately according to software control and a built in state machine, in order to synchronize the device operational states. We are now addressing functional issues and solutions in both our hardware and software. To date, we are pleased with the results and we are preparing to perform full system testing in the near future.”
