Verification IP: the questions you should ask
By Neill Mullinger, Synopsys
Tech Design Forum
Drop-in verification IP is a mythical creature: Unlike design IP, VIP users don’t have the luxury of ‘drag and drop’ implementations that require relatively little protocol expertise on the user’s part. Verification engineers need protocol knowledge to check that coverage is complete, properly interpret results and debug unexpected behavior. Verification engineers require fast access to information and knowledge of the protocol to quickly ramp on new protocols and new versions of existing protocols.
These requirements won’t go away. Protocols are becoming still-more complex and numerous, and the days of writing your own VIP with the attendant risk of spec misinterpretations and ongoing support load are long gone. Development teams recognize the need to spend engineering cycles on value-added tasks, not re-inventing the wheel. So the onus falls on the third-party VIP vendors. Their VIP must have the capabilities to reduce the protocol expertise needed by users. Choosing the right VIP vendor is a critical choice for project success.
The challenge lies in getting VIP that has the right combination of qualities. With that goal in mind, here is my take on 10 broad ‘need-to-knows’ and, within them, some specific questions to ask vendors. They should help you find VIP that maximizes the effectiveness of your verification.
One quick note: these themes are not ranked in a particular order. Your own projects are likely to determine that, and priorities will vary for different markets. However, you will probably want to pull on all of them to some extent.
To read the full article, click here
Related Semiconductor IP
- Flexible Pixel Processor Video IP
- Bluetooth Low Energy 6.0 Digital IP
- MIPI SWI3S Manager Core IP
- Ultra-low power high dynamic range image sensor
- Neural Video Processor IP
Related White Papers
- Select the Right Microcontroller IP for Your High-Integrity SoCs
- 7 warning signs that you should be concerned about your IP provider
- How to Create Efficient IP Standards and Why You Should Care
- Plug-n-play UVM Environment for Verification of Interrupts in an IP
Latest White Papers
- Enabling Space-Grade AI/ML with RISC-V: A Fully European Stack for Autonomous Missions
- CANDoSA: A Hardware Performance Counter-Based Intrusion Detection System for DoS Attacks on Automotive CAN bus
- How Next-Gen Chips Are Unlocking RISC-V’s Customization Advantage
- Efficient Hardware-Assisted Heap Memory Safety for Embedded RISC-V Systems
- Automatically Retargeting Hardware and Code Generation for RISC-V Custom Instructions