Simplified UVM for FPGA Reliability: UVM for “Sufficient Elemental Analysis” in DO-254 Flows

DO-254 and other safety critical applications require meticulous initial requirements capture followed by accurate functional verification. “Elemental Analysis” in DO-254 refers to the verification completeness to ensure that all ‘elements’ of a design are actually exercised in the pre-planned testing. Code Coverage is good for checking if implementation code has been tested, but cannot guarantee functional accuracy. Currently, functional accuracy is guaranteed using pre-planned directed tests, auditing the test code and auditing the log files. This is not scalable as designs get complex. In this article we will look at using SystemVerilog syntax to concisely describe the functional coverage in the context of accurate “elemental analysis”.