The Quest for Bugs: Dilemmas of Hardware Verification

The Quest for Bugs: Dilemmas of Hardware Verification
by Bryan Dickman on 02-28-2021 at 6:00 am

The Quest for Bugs Dilemmas of Hardware Verfication

Functional Verification for complex ASICs or IP-Core products is a resource limited ‘quest’ to find as many bugs as possible before tape-out or release. It can be a long, difficult and costly search that is constrained by cost, time and quality. The search space is practically infinite, and 100% exhaustive verification is an unrealisticRead More


Verifying the RTL Coming out of a High-Level Synthesis Tool

Verifying the RTL Coming out of a High-Level Synthesis Tool
by Daniel Payne on 03-30-2015 at 9:30 pm

With High-Level Synthesis (HLS) the first benefit that comes to my mind is reduced design time, because coding with C or SystemC is more efficient than low-level RTL code. What I’ve just learned is that there’s another benefit, a reduction in the amount of functional simulation required. One HLS customer was able … Read More


A random walk down OS-VVM

A random walk down OS-VVM
by Don Dingee on 05-13-2013 at 11:14 am

Unlike one prevailing theory of financial markets, digital designs definitely don’t function or evolve randomly. But many engineers have bought into the theory that designs can be completely tested randomly. Certainly there is value to randomness, exercising all combinations of inputs, including unexpected ones a designer… Read More