RISC-V cores are popping up everywhere. The growth of this open instruction set architecture (ISA) was quite evident at the recent RISC-V summit. You can check out some of the RISC-V buzz on SemiWiki here. While all this is quite exciting and encouraging, there are hurdles to face before true prime-time, ubiquitous application… Read More
Tag: dave kelf
Podcast EP239: The Future of Verification for Advanced Systems with Dave Kelf
Dan is joined by Dave Kelf, CEO of Breker Verification Systems, whose product portfolio solves challenges across the functional verification process for large, complex semiconductors. Dave has deep experience with semiconductor design and verification with management and executive level positions at Cadence, Synopsys,… Read More
System VIPs are to PSS as Apps are to Formal
In the formal world the core technology is extremely powerful, and specialist users need full access to tackle difficult problems. But for many applications, teams prefer canned solutions built on the core technology yet scalable to non-experts. A similar dynamic appears to be playing out between System VIPs and PSS. PSS, the… Read More
Scaling the RISC-V Verification Stack
The RISC-V open ISA premise was clearly a good bet. It’s taking off everywhere, however verification is still a challenge. As an alternative to Arm, the architecture and functionality from multiple IP providers looks very competitive, but how do RISC-V providers and users ensure the same level of confidence we have in Arm? Arm … Read More
Breker Attacks System Coherency Verification
The great thing about architectural solutions to increasing throughput is that they offer big improvements. Multiple CPUs on a chip with (partially) shared cache hierarchies are now commonplace in server processors for this reason. But that big gain comes with significant added complexity in verifying correct behavior. In… Read More
Podcast EP53: Breker’s New CEO Weighs in on the Company, DAC and the Future of Verification
Dan is joined by Dave Kelf, who was recently appointed CEO of Breker Verification Systems. Dave discusses Breker’s unique approach to verification of complex systems, what its future impact will be and what Breker will be doing at DAC.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in these podcasts belong solely to the
Breker Tips a Hat to Formal Graphs in PSS Security Verification
It might seem paradoxical that simulation (or equivalent dynamic methods) might be one of the best ways to run security checks. Checking security is a problem where you need to find rare corners that a hacker might exploit. In dynamic verification, no matter how much we test we know we’re not going to cover all corners, so how can it… Read More
Verification, RISC-V and Extensibility
RISC-V is obviously making progress. Independent of licensee signups and new technical offerings, the simple fact that Arm is responding – in fundamental changes to their licensing model and in allowing custom user extensions to the instruction set – is proof enough that they see a real competitive threat from RISC-V.
Which all… Read More
Breker on PSS and UVM
When PSS comes up, a lot of mainstream verification engineers are apt to get nervous. They worry that just as they’re starting to get the hang of UVM, the ivory tower types are changing the rules of dynamic verification again and that they’ll have to reboot all that hard-won UVM learning to a new language. The PSS community and tool … Read More