Making UVM faster through a new configuration system

Making UVM faster through a new configuration system
by Daniel Payne on 12-26-2023 at 10:00 am

Elapsed Time min

The Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) is a popular way to help verify SystemVerilog designs, and it includes a configuration system that unfortunately has some speed and usage issues. Rich Edelman from Siemens EDA wrote a detailed 20-page paper on the topic of how to avoid these issues, and I’ve gone through it to… Read More


SystemVerilog Has Some Changes Coming Up

SystemVerilog Has Some Changes Coming Up
by Daniel Payne on 11-29-2023 at 10:00 am

SystemVerilog - extending coverpoints

SystemVerilog came to life in 2005 as a superset of Verilog-2005. The last IEEE technical committee revision of the SystemVerilog LRM was completed in 2016 and published as IEEE 1800-2017.

Have the last seven years revealed any changes or enhancements that maintain SystemVerilog’s relevance and efficaciousness in the face … Read More


Generative AI for Silicon Design – Article 1 (Code My FSM)

Generative AI for Silicon Design – Article 1 (Code My FSM)
by Anshul Jain on 10-24-2023 at 10:00 am

Generative AI for Silicon Design

In today’s fast-paced world, innovation in semiconductor design is a constant demand. The need for quicker, more accurate, and innovative solutions has paved the way for exploring the potential of Generative AI (#GenerativeAI) in the realm of semiconductor design development. Can it be done? Hell yeah! In this article… Read More


Using Linting to Write Error-Free Testbench Code

Using Linting to Write Error-Free Testbench Code
by Daniel Nenni on 08-23-2023 at 10:00 am

AMIQ EDA Design and Verification

In my job, I have the privilege to talk to hundreds of interesting companies in many areas of semiconductor development. One of the most fun things for me is interviewing customers—hands-on users—of specific electronic design (EDA) tools and chip technologies. Cristian Amitroaie, CEO of AMIQ EDA, has been very helpful in introducing… Read More


The Inconvenient Truth of Clock Domain Crossings

The Inconvenient Truth of Clock Domain Crossings
by Anupam Bakshi on 07-17-2023 at 6:00 am

Figure 3

Almost everything that we do in chip design and verification was invented to raise the abstraction above schematics and polygons. Register-transfer-level (RTL) design, functional simulation, logic synthesis, floorplanning, and more fall into this category. Even the notion of binary circuits is an abstraction. Underneath… Read More


AMIQ: Celebrating 20 Years in Consulting and EDA

AMIQ: Celebrating 20 Years in Consulting and EDA
by Daniel Nenni on 07-06-2023 at 10:00 am

AMIQ20

We’re getting close to the annual July Design Automation Conference (DAC) in San Francisco, and every year I like to make the rounds of the exhibitors beforehand and see what’s new. When I checked with AMIQ EDA, I found that this is a big year for them. Their parent company AMIQ just reached its 20th anniversary, and they’ll be celebrating… Read More


The State of FPGA Functional Verification

The State of FPGA Functional Verification
by Daniel Payne on 02-15-2023 at 10:00 am

Design Styles min

Earlier I blogged about IC and ASIC functional verification, so today it’s time to round that out with the state of FPGA functional verification. The Wilson Research Group has been compiling an FPGA report every two years since 2018, so this marks the third time they’ve focused on this design segment. At $5.8 billion… Read More


The State of IC and ASIC Functional Verification

The State of IC and ASIC Functional Verification
by Daniel Payne on 02-09-2023 at 10:00 am

Silicon Spins min

Way back in 2002 there was a study from Collett International Research on functional verification, and since 2010 the Wilson Research Group has continued that same kind of study with a new report every two years. What attracts me to this report is that it doesn’t just look at the installed base of one EDA vendor, instead it looks… Read More


Chiplets UCIe Require Verification

Chiplets UCIe Require Verification
by Daniel Nenni on 12-20-2022 at 6:00 am

UCIe VIP Truechip

Chiplets have been trending on SemiWiki for the past two years and I think that will continue into the distant future. As a potential way to unclog Moore’s Law, you can bet the semiconductor ecosystem will prove once again to be a chiplet force of nature driving semiconductor company roadmaps to smaller and better things.

To be clear,… Read More


A Hardware IDE for VS Code Fans

A Hardware IDE for VS Code Fans
by Daniel Nenni on 11-22-2022 at 10:00 am

VS Code Remote SSH Article Diagram

A few times a year, I check in with AMIQ EDA co-founder Cristian Amitroaie to see what’s new with their company and the integrated development environment (IDE) market for hardware design and verification. Usually he suggests a topic for us to discuss, but this time I specifically wanted to learn more about the version of their Design… Read More