Posts Tagged ‘debugging’
Monday, March 26th, 2018
 In this blog, I am going to discuss different phases that UVM follows.
The reason why UVM came up with such phases is because synchronization among all design-testbench was necessary. Using Verilog and VHDL, verification engineers did not have facilities such as clocking block or run phases. Now, it is very important that the time at which test vectors applied from test-bench reaches the Design Under Test(DUT) at the same time. If timing for different signals varies then synchronicity lacks and thus verification can not be achieved as expected. That is the main reason why UVM has different phases.
The whole environment of UVM is structured on phases. They are active right from the beginning of the simulation to the end of the simulation. The topic discussed here will help people who are new to UVM. To start with, most of the phases are call back methods. The methods are either function or task. They are all derived from the UVM_Component class, same as other test-bench components. If you remember the first blog, we went through how to write a class. We understood the OOP concepts such as inheritance and even used them by extending the base class. Now, creating objects of the class is also important in order to use it as and when required. It is known as build_phase. This step takes place first. Next, after we write different classes, it is important to connect them. For example, if I write different classes with different functionality, at the end I provide them all under one top class. In Verilog it was top level module. In system Verilog it was class Environment. Under that main class, you connect all your semi classes which is known as connect_phase. Next, comes the end_of_elaboration_phase. By the time this phase becomes active, everything is connected and simulation next moment on wards is ready to begin.
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Tags: asic, co-simulation, coverage, debugging, documentation, FPGA, osvvm, Riviera-PRO, uvm, verification
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Monday, March 26th, 2018
 As an Applications Engineer I visit lots of potential customers, or talk to them at trade shows, who are doing FPGA designs but don’t own a commercial simulator. I ask them why that is. Most of the time it is budgetary restrictions. They don’t have funds to buy additional tools. I understand their situation and point out to them that at Aldec we have a very cost-effective simulator. But that is not what I want to talk about in this blog. I want to talk about engineers who say: “I am happy with the simulator my FPGA vendor provided me”, or “My simulations only take 15-20 minutes to run, I don’t think I need a faster simulator”, or “We don’t run simulations”.
That last response haunts me the most. For instance, at a recent site visit I was told: “We just load the design on our FPGA and test it out”. I asked how long does a full test iteration (i.e. program FPGA -> test -> debug -> re-code -> re-program) takes. They said about an hour or two, depending on the bug. I then asked how much of that time spent just running synthesis and programming the board? They said about 30 minutes.
Next, I proceeded to explain the benefits of running simulations in such scenario.
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Tags: debugging, design, FPGA Simulation, Riviera-PRO, simulation, verification
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Monday, January 29th, 2018
 In this blog, my major focus is on explaining the concepts such as Sequence, Sequencer, Driver and showing how the communication takes place from sequence to sequencer and from sequencer to driver. In the previous blog, I included a top-level diagram of the UVM structure, showing different base classes. If you need refresh your memory on where the classes Sequence, Sequencer and Drivers stand please click https://www.aldec.com/en/company/blog/149–understanding-the-inner-workings-of-uvm.
So, let’s look at the main concepts and follow the communication mechanism they use for the effective execution of a test.
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Tags: asic, co-simulation, coverage, debugging, documentation, FPGA, os-vvm, Riviera-PRO, uvm, verification
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Wednesday, November 29th, 2017
 Data analysis is often a very time consuming process for a hardware design or verification engineer. We always end up using the waveform viewer which may not be very efficient in giving us a high-level overview of what we’re looking for. Data that is spread across a long simulation cycle is very hard to visualize on the waveform. Whenever I have to analyze a huge chunk of data, I always wonder what would be the best way to do it. It is often cumbersome to go through even a millisecond’s worth of waveform data to analyze the bigger picture. There are of course other tools that can take a VCD file and perform an analysis but that involves buying and learning to use an additional tool.
Sometimes it’s not feasible to invest time and money into new tools. So we always go back to our trusty waveform viewer to make sense of the results. But what if there is a better way of analyzing such data, especially if you are doing some kind of signal processing application and have a lot of data that you would rather view in a format other than the time domain based representation of a waveform? For example, imagine you are trying to visualize the data of an FFT engine. On a waveform, it is next to impossible to visualize this.
In Riviera-PRO we have the Plots feature which can help you. The plot window ties directly to the simulation database, so you don’t have to code anything new or learn a new tool. Just with a few clicks you can add objects to the plot viewer and, based on the settings, it will generate a plot of that object. Sounds very simple but it gives you a bigger picture of what your design object is doing over the course of the entire simulation, rather than just the slice you can see on the waveform between two points of time.
For the rest of this article, visit the Aldec Design and Verification Blog.
Tags: co-simulation, debugging, DSP, hardware, plots, processing, Riviera-PRO, signal, simulation, verification, waveform
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Wednesday, February 10th, 2016
 One of the reasons I like using UVM is its tendency toward an organized structure and uniformity. Some may find it annoying to adhere to such a strict format in UVM, but I think it’s a good way to keep the basics of UVM engrained in your brain. You always want a good foundation and development of strong fundamentals in any endeavor. Verification is no different and UVM hammers the fundamentals home.
UVM has a great structure and organization paradigm. I consider there to be two distinct and fundamental elements in the UVM structure: Components and Objects. Now this characterization isn’t strictly correct because uvm_components are extended from uvm_objects, but I think they are used in such a way that warrants the distinction. I consider it similar to the idea of trucks and cars. In my view, trucks are also cars, but it’s useful to note the difference.
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Tags: debugging, resources, systemverilog, training, uvm, verification
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Monday, October 20th, 2014
 Recognizing a problem that engineers are facing and developing a solution has been Aldec’s rather straight-forward mantra for going on thirty years now. Aldec launched its Hardware Emulation Solutions (HES) product in 2003, integrating RTL simulation with hardware emulation, and offering hardware and software design teams the ability to work concurrently. Today HES™ is a fully automated and scriptable HybridVerification and Validation environment for SoC and ASIC designs capable of bit-level simulation acceleration, SCE-MI 2.1 transaction emulation, hardware prototyping, and virtual modeling.
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Tags: Aldec, automated and scriptable hybridverification, bit-level simulation acceleration, debugging, embedded, fabless semiconductor company, fpga ASIC prototypes, fpga-based emulation system, hardware emulation solutions, hardware prototyping, hes product, hes technology, hes usecases, HES-7, HES-DVM, SCE-MI 2.1 transaction emulation, sce-mi emulation, SoC and ASIC designs, SoC and ASIC Prototyping, uvm, validation environment, verification, virtual modeling
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Friday, January 10th, 2014
 When I first launched Aldec in 1984, home computers hadn’t quite taken off and innovations such as the compact disk and those oversized, power draining cellphones were still struggling to obtain mass acceptance.
Fast forward 30 years, even those of us in the electronics industry have whiplash from the speed at which technology is advancing and delivering new products. Buyers are more eager to become early adopters of innovative new technology, and smarter, faster tools are required to keep pace.
As a long-time member of the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) community, Aldec has had a front row seat to the technology race and over the years we have celebrated many successes of our own. Here, our product managers reflect on some of our most memorable highlights from 2013.
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Tags: Active-HDL, aldec founder, alint, ceo, class hierarchy visualization, comprehensive fpga vendor support, debugging, debugging tools, design, documentation, dynamic object debugging, dynamic object visualization, eda, electronic design automation community, fasttrack online training, FPGA Design, global project management, hes sw, hes-7 soc/asic prototyping, IP and Training Partner community, linting, microsemi, powerful simulation performance, riviera-pro debugging tool suite, rtax/rtsx prototyping solutions, SoC and ASIC Prototyping, spec-tracer requirements lifecycle management, support for uvm, sw validation platform, uvm, uvm-based verification environments, verification, vhdl-2008 support, xilinx zynq
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Monday, November 25th, 2013
 COMRATE™, the co-simulation solution developed by Aldec and Agilent is a lot like “couples-therapy” that can help get your digital blocks talking to the rest of your model-based design.
To illustrate, let’s take a look at a very basic model-level design and think about it from design-under-test perspective (i.e., what are the challenges associated with verifying this DUT):
For the rest of this article, visit the Aldec Design and Verification Blog.
Tags: agilent, Aldec, co-simulation, co-simulation flow, co-simulation solution, comrate, debugging, digital blocks, hdl models, mixed-signal, model-based design, multirate design, Riviera-PRO, system-level environment, system-level simulation, systemvue, verification, verification of multirate systems with multiple digital blocks
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Wednesday, August 28th, 2013
 As the proud Product Manager of Aldec’s FPGA Design Simulation solution, I am excited (like it was my first Cranberries concert) to announce that Active-HDL™ is celebrating 16 years since its initial release in 1997. Active-HDL has not merely stood the test of time, it has dominated the FPGA market like a Hulk Hogan smackdown with powerful simulation performance and debugging tools.
The key to Active-HDL’s long-term success lies in Aldec’s customer-centric philosophy. Simply put, we really do listen closely to our users and invest heavily in our tools. For this reason, continued simulation performance optimizations from release to release enable users to benefit from Active-HDL’s faster simulation even as the size of FPGA designs continues to grow.
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Tags: Active-HDL, Aldec, assertions, cen, chinese electronics news, co-simulation, coverage, debugging, debugging tools, design, digital, documentation, FPGA, fpga design simulation solution, fpga designs, HDL, ieee, matlab, os-vvm, project management, semiconductor industry, simulation, simulation platform, standards, top fpga design, university, verification, verification platform, verilog, VHDL, Xilinx
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Monday, July 22nd, 2013
 To Accelerate DSP Design Development
If we’re being honest, human beings, especially engineers, are lazy. Let’s face it, most inventions ever made were created for the sole purpose of making our lives easier. The same goes for the manner in which we create our designs. In the not so distant past, engineers were drawing designs by hand on huge trace paper, placing them one below the other to form layers. This sounds like hard work to me! The lazy me would have wanted a smart (read: easy) solution to this process. Then along comes the EDA industry, which Aldec has been part of since 1984, making it much easier for us to do our designs.
Some might argue that EDA was born out not out of laziness, but in fact neccessity, due to increasing design complexity. True, it is impossible to imagine how the pencil and paper method could even work today. The point is it didn’t, and we now have automated the process to such an extent all you need do is enter some parameters in a tool wizard.
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Tags: accelerate dsp design development, Aldec, co-simulation, data analysis, data visualization, debugging, design, dsp algorithm, eda industry, edif cells, hdl code, hdl simulator, matlab, Riviera-PRO, simulink, verification, verilog modules, vhdl entities
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In this blog, I am going to discuss different phases that UVM follows.
