My first ASIC was validated like that. A much larger wire wrapped board with a bunch of FPGAs. It only worked if you gently pushed with your hands into the wir

My first ASIC was validated like that. A much larger wire wrapped board with a bunch of FPGAs. It only worked if you gently pushed with your hands into the wires, but it was sufficient to discover a bunch of bugs (that should have been found in simulation, but we were total cowboys back then.)