Verification Academy

Search form

My Account Menu

  • Register
  • Log In
  • Topics
  • Courses
  • Forums
  • Patterns Library
  • Cookbooks
  • Events
  • More
  • All Topics
    The Verification Academy offers users multiple entry points to find the information they need. One of these entry points is through Topic collections. These topics are industry standards that all design and verification engineers should recognize. While we continue to add new topics, users are encourage to further refine collection information to meet their specific interests.
    • Languages & Standards

      • Portable Test and Stimulus
      • Functional Safety
      • Design & Verification Languages
    • Methodologies

      • UVM - Universal Verification Methodology
      • UVM Framework
      • UVM Connect
      • FPGA Verification
      • Coverage
    • Techniques & Tools

      • Verification IP
      • Simulation-Based Techniques
      • Planning, Measurement, and Analysis
      • Formal-Based Techniques
      • Debug
      • Clock-Domain Crossing
      • Acceleration
  • All Courses
    The Verification Academy is organized into a collection of free online courses, focusing on various key aspects of advanced functional verification. Each course consists of multiple sessions—allowing the participant to pick and choose specific topics of interest, as well as revisit any specific topics for future reference. After completing a specific course, the participant should be armed with enough knowledge to then understand the necessary steps required for maturing their own organization’s skills and infrastructure on the specific topic of interest. The Verification Academy will provide you with a unique opportunity to develop an understanding of how to mature your organization’s processes so that you can then reap the benefits that advanced functional verification offers.
    • Universal Verification Methodology (UVM)

      • Advanced UVM
      • Basic UVM
      • Introduction to UVM
      • UVM Connect
      • UVM Debug
      • UVMF - One Bite at a Time
    • Featured Courses

      • Introduction to ISO 26262
      • Introduction to DO-254
      • Clock-Domain Crossing Verification
      • Portable Stimulus Basics
      • Power Aware CDC Verification
      • Power Aware Verification
      • SystemVerilog OOP for UVM Verification
    • Additional Courses

      • Assertion-Based Verification
      • An Introduction to Unit Testing with SVUnit
      • Evolving FPGA Verification Capabilities
      • Metrics in SoC Verification
      • SystemVerilog Testbench Acceleration
      • Testbench Co-Emulation: SystemC & TLM-2.0
      • Verification Planning and Management
      • VHDL-2008 Why It Matters
    • Formal-Based Techniques

      • Formal Assertion-Based Verification
      • Formal-Based Technology: Automatic Formal Solutions
      • Formal Coverage
      • Getting Started with Formal-Based Technology
      • Handling Inconclusive Assertions in Formal Verification
      • Sequential Logic Equivalence Checking
    • Analog/Mixed Signal

      • AMS Design Configuration Schemes
      • Improve AMS Verification Performance
      • Improve AMS Verification Quality
  • All Forum Topics
    The Verification Community is eager to answer your UVM, SystemVerilog and Coverage related questions. We encourage you to take an active role in the Forums by answering and commenting to any questions that you are able to.
    • UVM Forum

      • Active Questions
      • Solutions
      • Replies
      • No Replies
      • Search
      • UVM Forum
    • SystemVerilog Forum

      • Active Questions
      • Solutions
      • Replies
      • No Replies
      • Search
      • SystemVerilog Forum
    • Coverage Forum

      • Active Questions
      • Solutions
      • Replies
      • No Replies
      • Search
      • Coverage Forum
    • Additional Forums

      • Announcements
      • Downloads
      • OVM Forum
  • Patterns Library
    The Verification Academy Patterns Library contains a collection of solutions to many of today's verification problems. The patterns contained in the library span across the entire domain of verification (i.e., from specification to methodology to implementation—and across multiple verification engines such as formal, simulation, and emulation).
    • Implementation Patterns

      • Environment Patterns
      • Stimulus Patterns
      • Analysis Patterns
      • All Implementation Patterns
    • Specification Patterns

      • Occurrence Property Patterns
      • Order Property Patterns
      • All Specification Patterns
    • Pattern Resources

      • Start Here - Patterns Library Overview
      • Whitepaper - Taking Reuse to the Next Level
      • Verification Horizons - The Verification Academy Patterns Library
      • Contribute a Pattern to the Library
  • All Cookbooks
    Find all the methodology you need in this comprehensive and vast collection. The UVM and Coverage Cookbooks contain dozens of informative, executable articles covering all aspects of UVM and Coverage.
    • UVM Cookbook

      • UVM Basics
      • Testbench Architecture
      • DUT-Testbench Connections
      • Configuring a Test Environment
      • Analysis Components & Techniques
      • End Of Test Mechanisms
      • Sequences
      • The UVM Messaging System
      • Other Stimulus Techniques
      • Register Abstraction Layer
      • Testbench Acceleration through Co-Emulation
      • Debug of SV and UVM
      • UVM Connect - SV-SystemC interoperability
      • UVM Versions and Compatibility
      • UVM Cookbook
    • Coding Guidelines & Deployment

      • Code Examples
      • UVM Verification Component
      • Package/Organization
      • Questa/Compiling UVM
      • SystemVerilog Guidelines
      • SystemVerilog Performance Guidelines
      • UVM Guidelines
      • UVM Performance Guidelines
    • Coverage Cookbook

      • Introduction
      • What is Coverage?
      • Kinds of Coverage
      • Specification to Testplan
      • Testplan to Functional Coverage
      • Bus Protocol Coverage
      • Block Level Coverage
      • Datapath Coverage
      • SoC Coverage Example
      • Requirements Writing Guidelines
      • Coverage Cookbook
  • All Events
    No one argues that the challenges of verification are growing exponentially. What is needed to meet these challenges are tools, methodologies and processes that can help you transform your verification environment. These recorded seminars from Verification Academy trainers and users provide examples for adoption of new technologies and how to evolve your verification process.
    • Upcoming & Featured Events

      • Low Power Verification - 4/29
      • Fault Campaign for Mixed-Signal - 5/4
      • User2User - 5/26
      • Webinar Calendar
    • On-Demand Webinars

      • CDC+RDC Analysis
      • Basic Abstraction Techniques
      • Safety Analysis Techniques
      • QVIP Workflow and Debug for PCIe
      • Writing a Proxy-driven Testbench
      • Achieving High Defect Coverage
      • Visualizer Features
      • All On-Demand Webinars
    • Recording Archive

      • Siemens EDA 2021 Functional Verification Webinar Series
      • Improving Your SystemVerilog & UVM Skills
      • Should I Kill My Formal Run?
      • Visualizer Debug Environment
      • Industry Data & Surveys
      • All Recordings
    • Conferences

      • DVCon 2021
      • DVCon 2020
      • DAC 2019
      • All Conferences
    • Mentor Learning Center

      • SystemVerilog Fundamentals
      • SystemVerilog UVM
      • View all Learning Paths
  • About Verification Academy
    The Verification Academy will provide you with a unique opportunity to develop an understanding of how to mature your organization's processes so that you can then reap the benefits that advanced functional verification offers.
    • Blog & News

      • Verification Horizons Blog
      • Academy News
      • Academy Newsletter
      • Technical Resources
    • Verification Horizons Publication

      • Verification Horizons - March 2021
      • Verification Horizons - November 2020
      • Verification Horizons - July 2020
      • Issue Archive
    • About Us

      • Verification Academy Overview
      • Subject Matter Experts
      • Contact Us
    • Training

      • Questa Basic
      • Questa Advanced
      • Mastering Questa
  • Home
  • Technical Resources
  • Using Test-IP Based Verification Techniques in a UVM Environment

Using Test-IP Based Verification Techniques in a UVM Environment

Authors:

  • Vidya Bellippady - Microsemi Corporation
  • Sundar Haran - Microsemi Corporation
  • Jay O'Donnell - Mentor Graphics

Abstract:

This paper describes a new verification technique using Test-IP, which are pre-built UVM test sequences implemented using a combination of directed, intelligent testbench (iTBA), and random methods. Test-IP converts an abstract test description defined in the UVM test into a series of protocol-specific burst sequence items passed to a standard verification-IP driver. This paper describes why the technique was first developed for AXI bus fabric applications and references a case-study where it was used to verify a 2-port AXI DDR controller.

The Test-IP approach differs from traditional approaches used with verification IP in the following ways:

  • Eliminates user requirements to understand how the verification IP works when implementing tests. The user writes simple UVM tests
  • Each UVM test populates a simple configuration (cfg) class specifying the type of bus traffic to be generated
  • The cfg class contains user-defined address ranges/properties for peripheral addresses in the system. A set of cfgclass controls defining bus master agent capabilities are also provided
  • Test-IP reads the cfg and generates traffic using intelligent testbench (iTBA) graph-based methods. iTBA graphs target stimulus combinations inferred by the cfg class which can be validated using traditional functional coverage metrics
  • Supports optional generation of sequential address accesses for applications needing a more directed test approach
  • Supports optional random selection of various protocol fields for use in constrained-random (CRT) applications

This technique vastly simplifies the test development process and achieves equivalent or superior functional coverage results in a fraction of the simulation time, and has applications in other verification work including bus fabric verification and performance profiling. Similar test-IP components have been implemented supporting the full set of AMBA protocols including AHB, AXI4, and ACE and used in related applications in both OVM and UVM environments.

Introduction:

Test-IP was first developed for an AMBA bus fabric application where the prior approach used a large number of directed sequences with limited functional coverage metrics. Test effectiveness was limited because it relied entirely on the user's capacity to write enough sequences without adequate feedback from functional coverage metrics. Test-IP supporting AXI was developed to address both the test capacity and test effectiveness problems.

Figure 1 shows a typical UVM fabric application using traditional directed sequences targeting AXI slaves in the system, with user-developed code highlighted in yellow. User directed sequences construct AXI bursts targeting various slaves required different addressing and burst construction depending on slave design. Unique sequences were needed for each master because different masters typically have different slave connectivity on the fabric. Each master would typically manage multiple outstanding read and write bursts which could interleave, further complicating the design of the sequences. Developing functional coverage to measure that each master accessed its target slaves generating the legal subset of AXI protocol supported by those slaves was too difficult to implement, leaving no effective means to assure tests were effective.

View & Download:

Read the entire Using Test-IP Based Verification Techniques in a UVM Environment technical paper.

Source:

DVCon 2014

  Using Test-IP Based Verification Techniques in a UVM Environment
Siemens Digital Industries Software

Siemens Digital Industries Software

##TodayMeetsTomorrow

Solutions

  • Cloud
  • Mendix
  • Siemens EDA
  • MindSphere
  • Siemens PLM
  • View all portfolio

Explore

  • Digital Journeys
  • Community
  • Blog
  • Online Store

Siemens

  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Events
  • News and Press
  • Newsletter
  • Customer Stories

Contact Us

USA:

phone-office +1 800 547 3000

See our Worldwide Directory

  • Contact Us
  • Support Center
  • Give us Feedback
©2021 Siemens Digital Industries Software. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use Privacy Cookie Policy