Eduard Cerny - Böcker

Functional verification remains one of the single biggest challenges in the development of complex system-on-chip (SoC) devices. Despite the introduction of successive new technologies, the gap between design capability and verification confidence continues to widen. The biggest problem is that these diverse new technologies have led to a proliferation of verification point tools, most with their own languages and methodologies. Fortunately, a solution is at hand. SystemVerilog is a unified language that serves both design and verification engineers by including RTL design constructs, assertions and a rich set of verification constructs. SystemVerilog is an industry standard that is well supported by a wide range of verification tools and platforms. A single language fosters the development of a unified simulation-based verification tool or platform.Consolidation of point tools into a unified platform and convergence to a unified language enable the development of a unified verification methodology that can be used on a wide range of SoC projects. ARM and Synopsys have worked together to define just such a methodology in the Verification Methodology Manual for SystemVerilog. This book is based upon best verification practices by ARM, Synopsys and their customers.Verification Methodology Manual for SystemVerilog is a blueprint for verification success, guiding SoC teams in building a reusable verification environment taking full advantage of design-for-verification techniques, constrained-random stimulus generation, coverage-driven verification, formal verification and other advanced technologies to help solve their current and future verification problems.This book is appropriate for anyone involved in the design or verification of a complex chip or anyone who would like to know more about the capabilities of SystemVerilog. Following the Verification Methodology Manual for SystemVerilog will give SoC development teams and project managers the confidence needed to tape out a complex design, secure in the knowledge that the chip will function correctly in the real world.

The Computer Hardware Description Languages' conference originated under IEEE/ACM sponsorship and since 1981 has been organized by IFIP Working Group 10.2 (now WG 10.5). Its general topic has had a significant history with over 100 HDLs published in the 1970s. Since the mid-1980s, HDLs have become commonplace in system design and VLSI. This can be attributed to many factors including the advancing complexity of digital electronics, leading to more sophisticated modelling, simulation and verification tools; the migration of VLSI design to high-level synthesis based on HDLs; advances in microelectronics CAD towards support of system-level design; and the increasing prevalence of generic and programmable components, of software-hardware and mixed digital-analogue hybrid designs. Presently, we are in a consolidation phase, in which languages and standards are increasingly being used, while the scope is being broadened to additional application areas (such as analogue, microwave or system-level design).This book should be of interest to engineers dealing with Hardware Design and Electronic Design Automation; manufacturers of computer systems and telecommunication equipment; and also to students and lecturers in electrical and computer engineering and computer science departments.

Standardization of hardware description languages and the availability of synthesis tools has brought about a remarkable increase in the productivity of hardware designers. Yet design verification methods and tools lag behind and have difficulty in dealing with the increasing design complexity. This may get worse because more complex systems are now constructed by (re)using Intellectual Property blocks developed by third parties. To verify such designs, abstract models of the blocks and the system must be developed, with separate concerns, such as interface communication, functionality, and timing, that can be verified in an almost independent fashion. Standard Hardware Description Languages such as VHDL and Verilog are inspired by procedural "imperative" programming languages in which function and timing are inherently intertwined in the statements of the language. Furthermore, they are not conceived to state the intent of the design in a simple declarative way that contains provisions for design choices, for stating assumptions on the environment, and for indicating uncertainty in system timing.This text presents a description methodology that was inspired by Timing Diagrams and Process Algebras, the so-called Hierarchical Annotated Diagrams. It is suitable for specifying systems with complex interface behaviours that govern the global system behaviour. A HADD specification can be converted into a behavioural real-time model in VHDL and used to verify the surrounding logic, such as interface transducers. Also, function can be conservatively abstracted away and the interactions between interconnected devices can be verified using Constraint Logic Programming based on Relational Interval Arithmetic. The text should be of interest to readers who are involved in defining methods and tools for system-level design specification and verification. The techniques for interface compatibility verification can be used by practicing designers, without any more sophisticated tool than a calculator.

Standardization of hardware description languages and the availability of synthesis tools has brought about a remarkable increase in the productivity of hardware designers. Yet design verification methods and tools lag behind and have difficulty in dealing with the increasing design complexity. This may get worse because more complex systems are now constructed by (re)using Intellectual Property blocks developed by third parties. To verify such designs, abstract models of the blocks and the system must be developed, with separate concerns, such as interface communication, functionality, and timing, that can be verified in an almost independent fashion. Standard Hardware Description Languages such as VHDL and Verilog are inspired by procedural `imperative' programming languages in which function and timing are inherently intertwined in the statements of the language. Furthermore, they are not conceived to state the intent of the design in a simple declarative way that contains provisions for design choices, for stating assumptions on the environment, and for indicating uncertainty in system timing. Hierarchical Annotated Action Diagrams: An Interface-Oriented Specification and Verification Method presents a description methodology that was inspired by Timing Diagrams and Process Algebras, the so-called Hierarchical Annotated Diagrams. It is suitable for specifying systems with complex interface behaviors that govern the global system behavior. A HADD specification can be converted into a behavioral real-time model in VHDL and used to verify the surrounding logic, such as interface transducers. Also, function can be conservatively abstracted away and the interactions between interconnected devices can be verified using Constraint Logic Programming based on Relational Interval Arithmetic. Hierarchical Annotated Action Diagrams: An Interface-Oriented Specification and Verification Method is ofinterest to readers who are involved in defining methods and tools for system-level design specification and verification. The techniques for interface compatibility verification can be used by practicing designers, without any more sophisticated tool than a calculator.

Functional verification remains one of the single biggest challenges in the development of complex system-on-chip (SoC) devices. Despite the introduction of successive new technologies, the gap between design capability and verification confidence continues to widen. The biggest problem is that these diverse new technologies have led to a proliferation of verification point tools, most with their own languages and methodologies. Fortunately, a solution is at hand. SystemVerilog is a unified language that serves both design and verification engineers by including RTL design constructs, assertions and a rich set of verification constructs. SystemVerilog is an industry standard that is well supported by a wide range of verification tools and platforms. A single language fosters the development of a unified simulation-based verification tool or platform.Consolidation of point tools into a unified platform and convergence to a unified language enable the development of a unified verification methodology that can be used on a wide range of SoC projects. ARM and Synopsys have worked together to define just such a methodology in the Verification Methodology Manual for SystemVerilog. This book is based upon best verification practices by ARM, Synopsys and their customers.Verification Methodology Manual for SystemVerilog is a blueprint for verification success, guiding SoC teams in building a reusable verification environment taking full advantage of design-for-verification techniques, constrained-random stimulus generation, coverage-driven verification, formal verification and other advanced technologies to help solve their current and future verification problems.This book is appropriate for anyone involved in the design or verification of a complex chip or anyone who would like to know more about the capabilities of SystemVerilog. Following the Verification Methodology Manual for SystemVerilog will give SoC development teams and project managers the confidence needed to tape out a complex design, secure in the knowledge that the chip will function correctly in the real world.

In the past few decades Computer Hardware Description Languages (CHDLs) have been a rapidly expanding subject area due to a number of factors, including the advancing complexity of digital electronics, the increasing prevalence of generic and programmable components of software-hardware and the migration of VLSI design to high level synthesis based on HDLs. Currently the subject has reached the consolidation phase in which languages and standards are being increasingly used, at the same time as the scope is being broadened to additional application areas. This book presents the latest developments in this area and provides a forum from which readers can learn from the past and look forward to what the future holds.

This book is a comprehensive guide to assertion-based verification of hardware designs using System Verilog Assertions (SVA). It enables readers to minimize the cost of verification by using assertion-based techniques in simulation testing, coverage collection and formal analysis. The book provides detailed descriptions of all the language features of SVA, accompanied by step-by-step examples of how to employ them to construct powerful and reusable sets of properties. The book also shows how SVA fits into the broader System Verilog language, demonstrating the ways that assertions can interact with other System Verilog components. The reader new to hardware verification will benefit from general material describing the nature of design models and behaviors, how they are exercised, and the different roles that assertions play. This second edition covers the features introduced by the recent IEEE 1800-2012.System Verilog standard, explaining in detail the new and enhanced assertion constructs. The book makes SVA usable and accessible for hardware designers, verification engineers, formal verification specialists and EDA tool developers. With numerous exercises, ranging in depth and difficulty, the book is also suitable as a text for students.