1. A system for verifying model equivalence, the system comprising: at least one memory device configured to store a reference model (RM) and comparison model (CM), wherein the CM and the RM are constrained by a same set of rules; and a processing unit configured to generate a reference model representation (RMR) from the RM and store the RMR on the at least one memory device; the processing unit further configured to generate a comparison model representation (CMR) from the comparison model (CM) and store the CMR on the at least one memory device, wherein the processing unit is further configured to: verify that the CMR and the RMR are compatible according to the same set of rules; verify that a CM data flow diagram derived from the CMR and a RM data flow diagram derived from the RMR are compatible with one another; verify that all CM semantic units implement expected behaviors that correspond to RM semantic units; and verify that all RM semantic units are accounted for in the CM.