Automated Pre-Silicon Verification of High-Speed DDR5 and LPDDR5/6 Memory Controllers: Closed-Loop Timing, Mode Register, and PHY Synchronization in UVM
By Manan Patel 1, Anirban Majumder 2
1 Google LLC, Mountain View, CA, USA
2 Google IT Services India Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru, India
Abstract
External memory interfaces (such as LPDDR5/4 and DDR5) are essential components of modern mobile, cloud, and enterprise computing systems. While memory manufacturers focus on physical DRAM die development, the vast majority of semiconductor firms design custom application ASICs that require a dedicated Memory Controller to interface with these standardized external memories. Consequently, pre-silicon design verification of the Memory Controller RTL -- acting as the Device Under Test (DUT) against a third-party DRAM Verification IP (VIP) -- is a ubiquitous and critical challenge across the global semiconductor industry. This article presents an automated, pre-silicon configuration and closed-loop initialization framework for Memory Controller verification. The proposed solution parses JEDEC timing and configuration parameters directly from the DRAM VIP's database files (such as Denali SOMA files) to configure the Memory Controller DUT's registers, while a custom Mode Register Register Abstraction Layer (MR-RAL) tracks volatile DRAM VIP states in real-time. Furthermore, a dynamic, re-compilation-free PHY initialization flow randomizes interface parameters directly in the testbench, executes on-the-fly configuration generation via system calls, and parses the resulting register write sequences at runtime. By integrating these automated methodologies into pre-silicon verification flows, engineers can eliminate setup overhead, prevent false protocol violations, and enable comprehensive randomized testing of complex PHY and Memory Controller configurations.
Index Terms—Closed-loop initialization, DDR5, DFI 5.1, DRAM Verification IP (VIP), LPDDR5, LPDDR6, mem ory controller verification, Register Abstraction Layer (RAL), SOMA files, SystemVerilog, Universal Verification Methodology (UVM).
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