Posts Tagged ‘verification’
Thursday, March 13th, 2014
 In James Bond movies, Agent 007 has some awesome gadgets but never listens to Q’s instruction on how to use them properly. I’ve often wondered what it would be like if Bond actually did learn about the various features of his tools and how to use them most efficiently.
Sure, that would probably eliminate all of the plot twists that make for a great movie, but when it comes to real life – I don’t care for plot twists. What about you? If you were a secret agent given these tools to keep you out of trouble or even save your life – would you take the time to learn about all of the features?
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Tags: advanced verification platform, Aldec, hdl code, image plots, plot feature, plot windows, polar, qam constellations, resources, Riviera-PRO, simulation, time-domain based results analysis, traditional waveforms, using plots for hdl debugging, vector, verification
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Thursday, February 20th, 2014
 DO-254 defines 3 types of verification methods: Analysis, Test and Review. In order to satisfy the verification objectives defined in DO-254, applicants must formulate a requirements-based verification plan that employs a combination of the three methods.
Analysis vs. Test
 A computerized simulation of the hardware item is considered an Analysis. Test is a method that confirms the actual hardware item correctly responds to a series of stimuli. Any inability to verify specific requirements by Test on the device itself must be justified and alternative means of verification must be provided. In DO-254, the hardware test is far more important than the simulation. Certification authorities favor verification by test for official verification credits because of the simple fact that hardware flies, not simulation models. Requirements describing pin-level behavior of the device must be verified by hardware test.
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Tags: Aldec, capture requirements, develop test cases, develop testbench, device testing with do-254/cts, do-254, final board testing, FPGA, fpga device, functional simulation code coverage, increase verification coverage by test, simulation, simulation models, test vectors for device testing, timing simulation, verification, verification methods
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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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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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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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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, October 9th, 2013
In the last SCE-MI article, we discussed how SCE-MI macro-based infrastructures can speedup SoC design verification time. In SCE-MI 2.1, Accelera introduced a ‘function-based’ infrastructure which is based on SystemVerilog DPI functionality. The SystemVerilog DPI is an interface which can be used to connect SystemVerilog files with foreign languages (C, C++, SystemC, etc).
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Tags: accelera, Aldec, Emulation, function-based infrastructure, HES-DVM, macro-based sce-miI, sce-mi macro-based infrastructures, SoC, soc design verification time, systemc, systemverilog, systemverilog dpi functionality, 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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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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In James Bond movies, Agent 007 has some awesome gadgets but never listens to Q’s instruction on how to use them properly. I’ve often wondered what it would be like if Bond actually did learn about the various features of his tools and how to use them most efficiently.
