Effective functional verification : principles and processes / by Srivatsa Vasudevan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vasudevan, Srivatsa.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Integrated circuits--Verification.

Integrated circuits.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 256 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Dordrecht : Springer, 2006.

Summary:

Effective Functional Verification is organized into 4 parts. The first part contains 3 chapters designed appeal to newcomers and experienced people to the field. There is a survey of various verification methodologies and a discussion of them.

The second part with 3 chapters is targeted towards people in management and higher up on the experience ladders. New verification engineers reading these chapters learn what is expected and how things work in verification. Some case studies are also presented with analysis of proposed improvements.

The last two parts are the result of experience of several years. It goes into how to optimize a verification plan and an environment and how to get results effectively. Various subjects are discussed here to get the most out of a verification environment. Lastely, the appendix discusses some tool specifics to help remove repetitive work and also some tool specific guidelines.

While reading Effective Functional Verification, one will be able to get a jump start on planning and executing a verification plan using the concepts presented.

Contents:

Part I Starting the Verification Journey

1 An Introduction to IC Verification 3

Importance of Verification 3

Overview of a Typical ASIC Design Process 6

Factors in Successful Verification 11

2 Approaches to Verification 13

What is Functional Verification all About? 14

Stimulating the design - A choice of approaches 16

Black Box Approach 16

White Box Approach 18

Gray Box Approach 18

Verification Approaches Based on Integration 19

Block Level Verification 20

Sub System Verification 23

Full Chip Verification 25

System Level Verification 26

Instruction Driven Verification 26

Random Testing 29

Coverage Driven Verification 30

Transaction Based Verification 33

Golden Model Approach 37

Advantages of a Golden Model 37

Disadvantages of using a Golden Model 38

Pre-Post Processing Approach 39

Assertion Based Verification 42

Assertions - Who writes them and when? 44

Types of Assertions 45

Advantages of an Assertion Based Methodology 45

Challenges with an Assertion Based Methodology 48

Formal Verification 49

Model Checking 51

A Comparison of Simulation and Formal approaches 52

Emulation and Acceleration 54

3 Various Workflows Practiced in Verification 59

An Overview of the Entire Verification Process 59

The Planning Process 62

Some Other Aspects of Verification Planning 63

Verification Resource Planning 64

The Regression Process 65

Block Regressions 67

Chip Level Regressions 68

Coverage in Regressions 68

Maturing of the Design 69

The Periodic Review Process 70

Regression Result Reviews 71

The Verification Signoff Process 72

Part II Ingredients of Successful Verification

4 People make all the Difference 77

Team Dynamics and Team Habits for Success 78

Habit 1 Begin With the Big Picture in Mind 78

Habit 2 Do it Right the First Time 80

Habit 3 Be Object Oriented in your Approach 82

Habit 4 Reduce, Reuse and Recycle 82

Habit 5 Innovate 83

Habit 6 Communicate 84

The Six Qualities of Successful Verification Engineers 86

Quality 1 The Ability to see the Full Picture 87

Quality 2 Assumes Nothing 88

Quality 3 Consistent 88

Quality 4 Organized 89

Quality 5 Multi-skilled 89

Quality 6 Empower Others 90

5 Case Studies from the Real World 93

Block and System Level Tests use Unrelated Environments 94

Not Implementing Monitors and Assertions Early on 94

Review Processes Not Done Timely 95

Pure Random Testing Without Directed Tests 96

Not Running a Smoke Test Before a Regression 97

Lint Policies 98

Effective Use of a Source Control Strategy 98

6 Tracking Results That Matter 101

Why Do We Ever Need any Verification Metrics? 101

Metrics in a Regression 102

Commonly used Metrics 105

Functional Coverage Metrics 109

Structural Coverage Metrics 110

Some Caveats on Structural Coverage 111

Assertion Verification Metrics 111

Part III Reducing work in Verification

7 Reducing Work in Verification 117

Considerations in a Verification Environment 118

Tri-State Buses and Dealing with Them 119

Dealing with Internal Signals 120

Environmental Considerations 122

Dealing with Register Programming 128

A Hybrid Approach to Register Programming 131

Dealing with Clocks 136

Driving the Design 137

Debugging the Design 138

Making Note of Errors 141

Debug Levels 141

Code Profiling to Keep the Inefficiency Out 143

Regression Management 145

Identify Failures Before You Run Again 149

Don't Postpone Features to be Tested 149

Compile your Code 149

QC Processes to run a Clean Run 150

Using a Data Profile to Speed up Simulations 150

Getting the Machine to Document for You 154

Keeping an Eye on the Design - Monitors 158

Checkers in an Environment 160

Linting Code 162

The RTL Acceptance Criterion 163

Part IV Ten Steps to Success

8 Ten Steps to Success 167

Step 1 A Specification Review 173

Step 2 The Identification of Test Objects 176

Step 3 Review of the Test Object List 180

Step 4 Tagging the List of Test Objects 182

Using Tags to Simplify the Regression Process 183

Step 5 Test Case Identification 185

Structure of a Test Case 185

Test Case Classifications 188

Directed Tests 188

Sweep Test Cases 190

Negative Testing 192

Random Test Cases 193

The Creation of a Possible List of Test Cases 194

Partitioning of Tests between Block and Top Level 197

Step 6 The Definition of a Correctness Strategy 200

Data Checkers 200

Protocol Checkers 201

Interface Checkers 201

Cycle Accurate Checkers 203

Using Monitors 203

Using Assertions and Formal Verification in the Methodology 203

Step 7 The test strategy 206

Hierarchical Strategy 208

Reuse Strategy 210

Stimulus Strategy 210

Test Case Strategy 211

Identifying Test cases for Maximum Yield & Coverage 211

Step 8 Testing the design 215

Component identification 215

Getting the Job Done. Execution of the test plan 221

Getting a Helping Hand from External Resources 222

The Case for GATE Simulations 223

Step 9 Figuring out where you Are in the Process 226

Performing Hole Analysis of What got Left Out in the Test Plan 231

The (bi)Weekly Review Processes 232

The monthly Review Processes 237

Step 10 Correlations on completion to sign-off 238

A Using PERL to connect to Microsoft Excel and Access 245

B Using PERL to convert between UNIX text files and Microsoft Word 249.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0387286012

OCLC:

70268008

Publisher Number:

9780387286013