2017: Tool And Methodology Shifts


As the markets for semiconductor products evolve, so do the tools that enable automation, optimization and verification. While tools rarely go away, they do bend like plants toward light. Today, it is no longer the mobile phone industry that is defining the direction, but automotive and the Internet of Things (IoT). Both of these markets have very different requirements and each creates their o... » read more

Formal’s Roadmap


Formal verification has come a long way in the past five years as it focused on narrow tasks within the verification flow. Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss that progress, and the future of formal technologies, with [getperson id="11306" comment="Raik Brinkmann"], president and CEO of [getentity id="22395" e_name="OneSpin Solutions"]; Harry Foster, chief verification scientist at [g... » read more

Optimizing Testbench Acceleration Performance


Part 3 in a series of papers that demystify the performance of SystemVerilog and UVM testbenches when using an emulator for the purpose of hardware-assisted testbench acceleration. In these three papers, architectural and modeling requirements are described, followed by a recommended systematic approach for maximizing overall testbench acceleration speed-up and achieving your ultimate performan... » read more

What’s Next For UVM?


The infrastructure for much of the chip verification being done today is looking dated and limited in scope. Design has migrated to new methodologies, standards and tools that are being introduced to deal with heterogeneous integration, more customization, and increased complexity. Verification methodologies started appearing soon after the release of SystemVerilog. Initially they were inten... » read more

Testbench Acceleration Performance Demystified


Part 2 in a series of papers that demystify the performance of SystemVerilog and UVM testbenches when using an emulator for the purpose of hardware-assisted testbench acceleration. In these three papers, architectural and modeling requirements are described, followed by a recommended systematic approach for maximizing overall testbench acceleration speed-up and achieving your ultimate performan... » read more

The Secret To Good Comedy And SystemC Code Verification… Timing!


The High-Level Synthesis (HLS) of algorithmic code, usually written in SystemC, is steadily gaining ground. However, the verification of this code is still a somewhat mixed-up, ad-hoc process. The situation is improving as new techniques are applied, but it is clear that in-the-trenches evaluation of these solutions on real projects is more important right now than grand visions missing substan... » read more

Reducing Design Risk With Testbench Acceleration


Part 1 in a series of papers that demystify the performance of SystemVerilog and UVM testbenches when using an emulator for the purpose of hardware-assisted testbench acceleration. In these three papers, architectural and modeling requirements are described, followed by a recommended systematic approach for maximizing overall testbench acceleration speed-up and achieving your ultimate performan... » read more

Open Standards For Verification?


The increasing use of verification data for analyzing and testing complex designs is raising the stakes for more standardized or interoperable database formats. While interoperability between databases in chip design is not a new idea, it has a renewed sense of urgency. It takes more time and money to verify increasingly complex chips, and more of that data needs to be used earlier in the fl... » read more

UVM Register Layer: The Structure


I don’t know about you, but I am looking forward to the day where we won’t even have to go to the doctor’s office for an exam. Instead, we will all have scanners in our homes that will transmit full digital models to our doctors who can then poke, prod, and examine us remotely. This is essentially what the UVM register layer allows and does. The UVM register layer acts similarly by mod... » read more

Why I See C In SCE-MI


The two questions I hear most often while doing presentations about SCE-MI transaction based emulation are, “Can we have coffee break?” and “Why do we need a thin C layer between two SystemVerilog tops”? You a probably reading this during a coffee break, so let’s jump to second question. It refers to this diagram showing how to connect a SystemVerilog testbench (usually UVM) with D... » read more

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