System and method for efficient verification of functional equivalence between design models

A method for determining functional equivalence between models of circuit designs, the method comprising the steps of;

• providing a first circuit model, a second circuit model, and a third circuit model;
• producing mapping point pairs;
• verifying that said second circuit model is functionally equivalent to said first circuit model based on said mapping point pairs;
• determining that at least one of said mapping point pairs was used to perform said verifying step;
• and
• utilizing, based on said determining step, said one mapping point pair to verify that said third circuit model is functionally equivalent to said first circuit model.

A system for determining functional equivalence between models of circuit designs, the system comprising:

• storage device for storing a first circuit model;
• a design manager configured to produce a second circuit model and a third circuit model based on said first circuit model;
• and
• an equivalence checker configured to produce mapping point pairs based on said first and second circuit models and to determine whether said second circuit model is functionally equivalent to said first circuit model based on said mapping point pairs, said equivalence checker further configured to select at least one of said mapping point pairs based on a determination, by said equivalence checker, that said one mapping point pair was used in determining whether said second circuit model is functionally equivalent to said first circuit model, said equivalence checker further configured to utilize said selected mapping point pair in determining whether said third circuit model is functionally equivalent to said first circuit model.