Posts Tagged ‘functional coverage’
Thursday, March 15th, 2018
 Let’s say you have a block you need to verify. How do you know that the stimulus you are about to use is exhaustive enough and that you have covered the necessary scenarios/situations to prove it is working correctly? This is where functional coverage comes in. SystemVerilog’s functional coverage constructs allow you to quantify the completeness of your stimulus by recording the values that have occurred on your signals.
Consider an 8-bit address signal, paddr, and a 32-bit data signal, pwdata. Assigning a coverpoint to each signal will direct your simulator to track these signals during simulation and record the number of hits. For each coverpoint, bins can be created to organize the possible signal values into meaningful categories. Finally, a covergroup is used to encapsulate it all and is instantiated using the new() constructor. Associating the covergroup with a clock event is also a good way to trigger the coverage sampling.
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Tags: functional coverage, Riviera-PRO, simulation, systemverilog, verification
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Thursday, May 15th, 2014
Alex Grove, FirstEDA Applications Specialist, was kind enough to author a guest blog for Aldec. Here’s an excerpt:
Here in Europe, I recently had the opportunity to work with Jim Lewis, OS-VVM Chief Architect and IEEE 1076 Working Group Chair, on the first Advanced VHDL Testbenches & Verification training course. This training, held in Bracknell, UK, was attended by engineers from several major European system companies who design and verify programmable devices (FPGAs). VHDL is by far the dominate language used by Europe’s system companies for the design and verification of FPGAs, however it is unclear to many how to enhance their verification with VHDL. What I have found is that experienced FPGA design engineers (including myself) are not utilising the VHDL language for verification.
Jim Lewis introduces VHDL’s verification capabilities, including new VHDL 2008 features and the Open Source VHDL Verification Methodology (OSVVM). OSVVM provides a methodology for testbench development and verification packages that provide functional coverage and random value generation. (more…)
Tags: advanced vhdl testbenches, Aldec, bist, built-in self test, coverage, design, design and verify programmable devices, finite-state machine, FPGA, fpga design engineers, fsm, functional coverage, ieee 1076 working group chair, ieee 1149.1 tap, open source vhdl verification methodology, os-vvm chief architect, osvvm, random value generation, randomization, test access port controller, test mode select signal, testbench development, tms signal, verification, verification packages, verification training course, verification with vhdl, VHDL, vhdl 2008 features, vhdl osvvm CoveragePkg to a fsm
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Wednesday, December 11th, 2013
 Here at the Aldec corporate office, we have a sign that reminds us all of our mission in the field of Technology. It reads, ‘To deliver solutions that provide the highest productivity to value ratio; supporting our existing products while delivering innovation to current and new technologies’. We have similar statements to reaffirm our commitment in the areas of Research, Alliances, and Culture – we call it our “Aldec DNA”.
 Because we genuinely want to have a clear understanding of our user’s requirements and methodology preferences, we continually engage in surveys and interviews. The knowledge we gain better positions us to support our existing products and to deliver that support where it matters the most to our users. If you’ve ever had that frustrating experience where your favorite tool no longer supports your methodology of choice – then you understand why this is so important.
Our Commitment to the VHDL Community
When it comes to VHDL-2008, we have learned from our customers that many are happy using the methodology – and continue to successfully deliver cutting-edge technology with it. So, while we remain committed to delivering innovation to new technologies, our R&D teams also invest a great deal of development time to ensure that Aldec solutions continue to offer a high level of support for popular languages like VHDL.
For the rest of this article, visit the Aldec Design and Verification Blog.
Tags: Active-HDL, advanced verification platform, Aldec, aldec design rule checker, aldec dna, aldec simulators, alint, bitvis, do-254/ed-80 vhdl rule plug-ins, eda industry, embedded psl, FPGA Design, functional coverage, HDL, highest productivity to value ratio, ieee, ieee 1076-1993 Standard, ieee 1076-2002 vhdl standard, ieee 1076-2008 standard, ieee standard, ieee vhdl, intelligent testbench methodology, open source vhdl verification methodology, osvvm, psl embedded in vhdl, randomization, Riviera-PRO, simulation, source encryption, standards, starc vhdl, vector implementation of integer arithmetic, verification, VHDL, vhdl community, vhdl designs, vhdl testbench, vhpi interfacing to C/C++ code
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Let’s say you have a block you need to verify. How do you know that the stimulus you are about to use is exhaustive enough and that you have covered the necessary scenarios/situations to prove it is working correctly? This is where functional coverage comes in. SystemVerilog’s functional coverage constructs allow you to quantify the completeness of your stimulus by recording the values that have occurred on your signals.
