Posts Tagged ‘Validation’
Wednesday, February 19th, 2020
Have you ever worked on a group project where you had to combine your work with that of a colleague of a different engineering discipline but the absence of an efficient means of doing so affected the project’s overall outcome? Well, for software and hardware engineers developing an SoC, the merging of their respective engineering efforts for verification purposes is a big challenge.
Early access to hardware-software co-verification allows hardware and software teams to work concurrently and set the foundation to a successful SoC project. However, many co-emulation methodologies are based on processor virtual models which are not accurate representations of the design. Fortunately, Aldec has a solution that integrates an ARM-based SoC from Xilinx, specifically a Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC, with the largest Xilinx UltraScale FPGA. Since the Zynq device includes the hard IP of the ARM processor, our solution provides an accurate representation of the ARM-based SoC design for co-verification.
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Tags: ARM, asic, embedded, Emulation, FPGA, HES-DVM, SoC, SoC and ASIC Prototyping, Validation, verification, Zynq
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Monday, April 20th, 2015
How to use VIPs In Practice
Let’s assume that we are designing a new system on chip (SoC) which contains a processor and memory controller, as well as analog and digital peripherals like Ethernet, USB, 1-Wire and JTAG controllers.
Allow me to describe a typical verification process, and explain why I recommend the use of Verification IPs within the testing process.
Figure 1. Typical verification process
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Tags: Aldec, Emulation, HES-7, HES-DVM, ICE, In-circuit emulation, Kamil Rymarz, Monitor, Riviera-PRO, SoC Verification, Speed Adapter, Test, Transactor, Validation, Verification IP
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Wednesday, July 16th, 2014
 If they’re being honest, anyone who has verified an FPGA under strict DO-254 guidance will tell you that it is stressful. Show me an engineer on their first DO-254 project – and I’ll show you someone pulling out their hair and downing what is probably their 5th cup of coffee while these important questions weigh heavy on their minds:
Have we reviewed all FPGA requirements and validated derived FPGA requirements? Do we have a good record of the review activities?
Do I have a test for each functional FPGA requirement? What’s the status of the tests? How do I track the progress and document the results?
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Tags: aviation, coverage, design, do-254, DO-254 Guidance, FPGA, HDL Design, Impact Analysis, Requirements-Based Verification, safety-critical, Testbench, Traceability, Validation, verification
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Friday, October 18th, 2013
 The University of California, Irvine (UCI) is popular for many things, but I recall during my school days that it was distinctly known among students for its underground tunnel network. The official story is that they were simply built to house heating and cooling pipes. Yet, the rumor persists that this complex maze of underground tunnels was constructed decades ago to provide safe passage for faculty members in case of student riots.
I’ll admit I would love to uncover these tunnels someday, unfortunately they have long been sealed off from curiosity seekers. I will, however, be at the UCI campus next week unraveling a different sort of maze for engineers attending the annual International SoC Conference. Aldec is once again a Platinum Sponsor for this popular academic conference, and this year I will be joined by NEC Corporation’s Dr. Wakabayashi to present a technical session:
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Tags: asic prototyping, high level synthesis, prototyping, SoC, SoC and ASIC Prototyping, Validation, verification
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Wednesday, September 18th, 2013
 Today’s System-on-Chip verification teams are moving up in the levels of abstraction to increase the degree of coverage in the system design. As designs grow larger, we start to see an increase in test time within our HDL simulations. Engineers can utilize Hardware-Assisted approaches such as simulation acceleration, transaction-level co-emulation, and prototyping to combat the growing simulation times of an RTL simulator. In this article, we’ll dive much deeper into the transaction-level co-emulation methodology.
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Tags: accelera, Aldec, co-simulation, dpi, Emulation, FPGA, function-based, hardware, hardware emulation platform, hardware-assisted verification method, hardware-assisted verification solution, hdl simulations, high-level testbenches, macro-based, pipes-based, prototyping, rtl simulator, sce-mi, simulation acceleration, SoC, SoC and ASIC Prototyping, soc designs, standard for co-emulation modeling interface, system-on-chip verification, systemverilog direct programming interface, systemverilog lrm, transaction-level co-emulation, transaction-level co-emulation methodology, Validation, verification
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Monday, September 9th, 2013
 You look confused. Perhaps I owe you an explanation. Anyone familiar with hardware design flow knows that it starts with specification and ends with implementation. The specification in this flow is the “What” – it defines what needs to be designed. The process for implementation is the “How” – it defines how you are going to achieve it.
Let’s break down just one part of the “How” or implementation – the Design Process. For many years hand-coded RTL has been used as the de facto method for implementation and it is still being used as predominant method for designing cutting-edge hardware. But does it follow that it is the most efficient method? I would say probably not, especially given the ever-growing complexity of the hardware.
For the rest of this article, visit the Aldec Design and Verification Blog.
Tags: Aldec, clocks, design, hand-coded rtl, hardware design flow, hierarchies, high level synthesis, hls tool, processes, rtl, SoC, SoC and ASIC Prototyping, systemc, technology, Validation, verification
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Thursday, August 22nd, 2013
Dr. Benjamin Carrion Schafer, Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (and longtime fan of Aldec’s latest offering, CyberworkBench from NEC) was kind enough to author a guest blog for Aldec. Here’s an excerpt:
My first encounter with NEC’s CyberWorkBench (CWB) was in 2003 while attending DAC. Like most people, I was surprised to see a big Japanese company offering EDA tools. NEC is definitely known more for its consumer products and telecommunication equipment. I have to admit, the main reason I stopped at their booth – was that they had hired a magician.
This magician told the audience he would teach us a trick and give us a set of magic cards if we stayed until the end of the presentation. I did and I received my set of magic cards (which I still keep). At the same time I also became a CWB user and even wound up working for NEC.
As an assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, I currently teach advanced VLSI courses and use CWB. It has some amazing capabilities. Let’s start with the fact that it supports ANSI-C and SystemC. Although SystemC might be a step in the right direction to have a unique standardized IEEE language, supported by all main HLS tools, it is not very intuitive and takes some time to master (especially if the user does not have a C++ background). Here is where ANSI-C support becomes very handy. Most people do know ANSI-C and it is very straightforward to convert any ANSI-C SW description into synthesizable C code.
For the rest of this article, visit the Aldec Design and Verification Blog.
Tags: Aldec, ansi-c, c/systemc code, dac, design, distributorship, hls, ide, nec cyberworkbench, qor visualization tool, rtl simulation, SoC, SoC and ASIC Prototyping, systemc, Validation, verification, verification process
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