  We propose a root-causing procedure for accelerating system-level debug using
rule-based techniques. We describe the procedure and how it provides high
quality debug hints for reducing the debug effort. This includes the heuristics
for engineering features from logs of many tests, and the data analytics
techniques for generating powerful debug hints. As a case study, we used these
techniques for root-causing failures of the Power Management (PM) design
feature Package-C8 and showed their effectiveness. Furthermore, we propose an
approach for mining the root-causing experience and results for reuse, to
accelerate future debug activities and reduce dependency on validation experts.
We believe that these techniques are beneficial also for other validation
activities at different levels of abstraction, for complex hardware, software
and firmware systems, both pre-silicon and post-silicon.
