The industry is excited about RISC-V, and rightly so. It is enabling companies to take back control of their software execution environment without having to assume the huge responsibilities that come along with processor development and support of an ecosystem for it. Maybe a company wants to use a commercially developed core today, get the software developed and the processor integrated and then in a future generation, replace that with their own core. Perhaps they envision a range of products where the processor is tuned for each product in the family. There are so many possibilities that were out of reach in the past. (more…)
The Breker Trekker
Posts Tagged ‘verification’
PSS and RISC-V – A Match Made In Verification
Thursday, November 14th, 2019Methodology Convergence
Thursday, August 8th, 2019It is unfortunate that design and verification methodologies have often been out of sync with each other, and increasingly so over the past 20 years. The design methodology change that caused one particular divergence was the introduction of design Intellectual Property (IP). IP meant that systems were no longer designed and built in a pseudo top-down manner, but contemplated at a higher level and constructed in a bottom up, ‘lego-like’ manner by choosing appropriate blocks that could implement the necessary functions. (more…)
The Making of a Standard
Thursday, June 21st, 2018The industry waits with bated breath for the Accellera board to approve the Portable Stimulus 1.0 specification. It has been a long and arduous process over the past four years to get to this point, a process that most people never get to experience. This was my first standard, and to say it was an eye opener is somewhat of an understatement. In this blog, I am not going to dwell on the many bruises I suffered or the technical discussions that often seemed like personal attacks. Instead, I want to make the industry aware of some of the difficulties associated with bringing a new and somewhat revolutionary standard to market. (more…)
Rewriting Revolutionary History
Friday, June 9th, 2017The semiconductor design industry has always preferred evolution over revolution. There have been a few successful revolutions but most of the time revolution happens over time through evolutionary steps. (more…)
Users Talk Back on Portable Stimulus
Friday, March 17th, 2017At the recent DVCon, I had the pleasure to moderate a panel that enabled users to talk about their experiences working with the Accellera standard’s body during the creation of the Portable Stimulus standard. I would like to thank Accellera for enabling such a panel and to Nanette Collins for organizing the panel and making sure that I had the easiest role in the ensuing discussion. I am sure that full write-ups of the panel will emerge, but I wanted to make the voice of the users heard. (more…)
