Verification Planning And Requirement Tracking For Analog Design


Verifying designs to meet all specifications across all process corners has become an intractable problem from the perspective of debugging, managing, tracking, and meeting verification goals. Implementing a CDV methodology for analog designs can evolve analog design and verification to a standard process-based method that can be tracked and its progress measured. This paper aims to extend comm... » read more

IP/SoC Verification With Assertions


There's been a lot of excitement here in Silicon Valley these past weeks with the opening of the new 49ers stadium. I've always found it amazing to see how so many complex, fundamentally different technologies — mechanical, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, audiovisual, food catering, etc. — can be put together to create a functioning ballpark. It all but takes a mastermind to bring all these eng... » read more

Planning For The Unexpected


Last month we undertook a big family trip. My parents, my brother and his family came from Belgium to California, and together we embarked on a trip across the Northwest United States. Starting in Silicon Valley we drove via Lake Tahoe and Salt Lake City to Yellowstone. Afterward, we crossed over to Seattle and Portland to finish off the trip with visits to Crater Lake and Lassen Volcanic Natio... » read more

The Assertion Conundrum


It is well documented and widely agreed that assertions can provide a tremendous benefit to design and verification teams by reducing and even eliminating debug – but their use is still not ubiquitous. Part of the reason is that assertions cannot be picked up casually, noted David Larson, director of verification at [getentity id="22150" e_name="Synapse Design"]. “This is because asserti... » read more

How To Improve Debug Productivity


In the realm of SoC verification world, it often takes a very short amount of time to write the testbench and the code, and the rest of the time — up to 90% — is spent debugging. After all, verification is essentially finding the bugs in a design. Debugging essentially has evolved over the years on the same path and complexity curve as design. Now debugging needs to evolve to keep pace, ... » read more

Localized, System-Level Protocol Checks And Coverage Closure


Broadcom recently developed a unified, scalable, verification methodology based on the Veloce emulation platform. In order to test this new environment, they ran a test case, which proved that they can take assertions, compile them into Veloce, and verify that they fire accurately. In so doing, they were able to provide proof of concept for their primary goal: the creation of an internal flow t... » read more

Post-Silicon Validation Using Formal Analysis


Verifying the current generation of complex SoCs requires the best methodology and tools, including the application of high-capacity formal verification technologies throughout the design flow, from architectural exploration to post-silicon debug. We see this last area, post-silicon debug, as an important value delivered by formal technology for design and verification teams who have not employ... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


Tools Synopsys rolled out a major new release of its place and route tool, the centerpiece of its physical design platform, offering up to 10X improvement in speed—a combination of 5X faster implementation and 2X larger capacity. Co-CEO Aart de Geus called it the most significant product in the company’s history. Synopsys also rolled out an AMS verification platform to accelerate regres... » read more

Big Shift In SoC Verification


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss software-driven verification with Ken Knowlson, principal engineer at Intel; Mark Olen, product manager for the Design Verification Technology Division of Mentor Graphics; Steve Chappell, senior manager for CAE technology and verification at Synopsys; Frank Schirrmeister, group director for product marketing of the System Development Suite at Cadenc... » read more

When I Grow Up, I Want To Be A Software Programmer


To keep up with the continuous introduction of new gadgets and capabilities in our smartphones, cars, houses and stores, it is clear that we need more software programmers. That is why multiple companies are coming up with new and innovative ways to introduce people — especially children — to programming. To lure them, the makers of these programming products try to mask the programming asp... » read more

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