Effective Functional Verification: Principles and Processes

Dedication. List of Figures. Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgments. Part I Starting the Verification Journey. 1. An Introduction to IC Verification. Importance of Verification. Overview of a Typical ASIC Design Process. Factors in Successful Verification. References.2. Approaches to Verification. What is Functional Verification all About? Stimulating the design - A choice of approaches. Verification Approaches Based on Integration. Instruction Driven Verification. Random Testing. Coverage Driven Verification. Transaction Based Verification. Golden Model Approach. Pre-Post Processing Approach. Assertion Based Verification. Formal Verification. Emulation and Acceleration. References.3. Various Workflows Practiced in Verification. An Overview of the Entire Verification Process. The Planning Process. The Regression Process. Maturing of the Design. The Periodic Review Process. The Verification Signoff Process. Part II Ingredients of Successful Verification. 4. People Make all the Difference. Team Dynamics and Team Habits for Success. The Six Qualitites of Successful Verification Engineers. References.5. Case Studies from the Real World. Block and System Level Tests use Unrelated Environments. Not Implementing Monitors and Assertions Early on. Review Processes Not Done Timely. Pure Random Testing Without Directed Tests. Not Running a Smoke Test Before a Regression. Lint Policies. Effective Use of a Source Control Strategy.6. Tracking results that matter. Why do we ever need any Verification Metrics? Metrics in a Regression. Commonly used Metrics. Functional Coverage Metrics. Structural Coverage Metrics. Assertion Verification Metrics. References. Part III Reducing work in Verification. 7. Reducing Work in Verification. Considerations in a Verification Environment. Tri-State Buses and Dealing with Them. Dealing with Internal Signals. Environmental Considerations. Dealingwith Register Programming. Dealing with Clocks. Driving the Design. Debugging the Design. Code Profiling to Keep the Inefficiency Out. Regression Management. QC Processes to run a Clean Run. Using a Data Profile to Speed up Simulations. Getting the Machine to Document for You. Keeping an Eye on the Design - Monitors. Checkers in an Environment. Linting Code. The RTL Acceptance Criterion. References. Part IV Ten Steps to Success. 8. Ten Steps to Success. Steps 1 Step 1: A Specification Review. Step 2: The Identification of Test Objects. Step 3: Review of the Test Object List. Step 4: Tagging the List of Test Objects. Step 5: Test Case Identification. Step 6: The Definition of a Correctness Strategy. Step 7: The test strategy. Step 8: Testing the design. Step 9: Figuring out where you Are in the Process. Step 10: Correlations on completion to sign-off. References. Appendices. Index.