Start using AXI VIP with some basic understanding of UVM

By Synopsys, Inc.

March 10, 2015

Recently I worked with a user who was responsible for verifying an AXI interface. This user did not have a UVM background, but was conversant with SystemVerilog. The user was faced with the challenge of learning UVM as well as coming up to speed with an understanding of the VIP: both at the same time, under tight verification timelines. Figuring out how much UVM knowledge would suffice to integrate the VIP, then coding the testbench around the VIP to run and debug the verification environment, appeared to be the first few challenges. I proposed a simple approach: let us begin with a simple directed testbench, get some AXI tests going using the VIP, gain some confidence in terms of understanding the core functionality of the DUT and VIP, and then, in parallel, learn some UVM basics as well. Later, I suggested, he can move on to advanced testing using constrained-random verification where he will need more advanced UVM knowledge, for instance, the application of virtual sequences.

Here are the steps used to integrate AXI VIP to start verification of an AXI interface in a simple directed environment. This approach for directed testing achieves good performance as well.

The testbench example below shows one AXI master VIP connected to a DUT slave. The actual example also uses a VIP in lieu of a slave DUT.

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