IEEE Std. 1666™-2011 Available as Free Download
In November 2011 I blogged the IEEE Standards Association (SA) approved a revision to the popular SystemC standard, known officially as IEEE Std. 1666™-2011. One of the key elements of this standard includes the addition of Transaction Level Modeling (TLM). I pointed to several online resources to learn more about the revised SystemC standard in that … Read More
I think very few engineers would argue with the claim that the longer a bug goes undetected, the more expensive it is to fix. In fact, the general rule-of-thumb is that the cost to fix a bug increases by an order of magnitude as a project progresses from one milestone to the next. Bugs found before simulation obviously have the lowest cost. Bugs found at block or subsystem simulation are generally easier … Read More
Instant Replay Offers Multiple Views at Any Speed
If you’ve watched any professional sporting event on television lately, you’ve seen the pressure put on referees and umpires. They have to make split-second decisions in real-time, having viewed ultra-high-speed action just a single time. But watching at home on television, we get the luxury of viewing multiple replays of events in question … Read More
Verification, testbench, SoC Level Verification, Cortex, ARM, Software as a Testbench, Functional Verification, SoC
The DASC Participates in IEEE Standards Association Gala Event
The IEEE Computer Society Design Automation Standards Committee (DASC) participated in the annual IEEE Standards Association (SA) Award ceremony held in New Brunswick, NJ USA on 4 December 2011. Hundreds met to recognize the work of thousands who volunteer daily to develop standards and to honor the few who are exceptional examples.
The … Read More
The word override is heavily overloaded in object oriented programming. This concept can make object-oriented programming very difficult to understand. Ironically, the very concept of object-oriented programming came from a simulation language called “Simula” in the 1960′s. Both Verilog and C++ are descendants of this language, but took different paths along the way to represent objects.
In … Read More
Adopting SystemVerilog can be challenging to some, and learning the UVM at the same time might seem overwhelming. There is no getting over the fact that if you are going to develop any reasonably sized testbench in SystemVerilog, you need to learn how to declare and construct a class. You also need to learn a few Object-Oriented programming principals so you can extend a UVM class into something for … Read More
IEEE Announces Revision to IEEE 1666™ – Adds Transaction-Level Modeling Support
A significant step forward to address standards for advanced system-on-chip (SoC) designs has taken place by the IEEE. The IEEE announced the new revision of the SystemC standard, known as IEEE 1666™-2011, has been approved. While it is a revision of the current SystemC standard, IEEE 1666™-2005, the major new feature … Read More
SystemC, TLM, Accellera, 1666, OVM, TLM 1.0, TLM 2.0, UVM, OSCI, Verification Academy
For Halloween this year I’ll be blogging a real horror story. And when I say “real”, I mean real – everything you are about to read is the truth. Not some Spielberg made up scary stuff. Knowing that it’s real makes it just a bit scarier. I’ve obfuscated some details to protect the identity of both the innocent and the guilty.
It all started some months ago, I was getting off a train in a European … Read More
Creating Confidence Globally
Today, 14 October 2011, is the day the world celebrates standards. The leadership of the IEC, ISO and ITU issued a message in support of it that clearly articulates the role standards play in safety, reliability, interoperability, their impact on business efficiency and more.
And from time-to-time, I have had the opportunity to join the celebration the American National … Read More
Legacy’s Luster Lost
As a follow-on to my last blog, where I shared information about Harry Foster speaking live about the research he has been reporting on the last year and where I noted legacy might hold some back, I was going to finish on some of the work we have done at Mentor Graphics to move forward while trying to keep some of those held back by legacy, whole.
Buy why this title? For some, … Read More
Is Legacy Holding You Back?
Harry Foster, Mentor’s Verification Chief Scientist, will take center stage to give live presentations on the pressing SoC verification issues as he highlights recent research he has been reporting on in his numerous blogs. The first event will be held in San Jose, CA USA (18 October 2011) and the second event will be held in Reading, UK (15 November 2011).
Harry has been … Read More
I’m excited to announce that our second UVM Recipe-of-the-Month Webinar, “Sequence Layering,” will be presented on Thursday, September 15, at 1pm EDT(/10am PDT). To join over 240 of your colleagues and/or competitors in viewing this webinar, please see here. The webinar should take about an hour. If you can’t make it for the live viewing, the webinar will be archived for later … Read More
Who Doesn’t Like Faster?
In my last blog post I introduced new technology called Intelligent Testbench Automation (“iTBA”). It’s generating lots of interest in the industry because just like constrained random testing (“CRT”), it can generate tons of tests for functional verification. But it has unique efficiencies that allow you to achieve coverage 10X to 100X … Read More
Functional Verification, Intelligent Testbench Automation, Constrained Random Test, testbench, Verification, iTBA
Historical Perspective
In my early days of standards development, I was intrigued how a standard went from the development phase to use phase. New standards were heralded with great fanfare but were also followed very quickly with books and other material to allow the “mere mortal” to understand what the IEEE standards prose meant and how best to use it. Everyone had their favorite VHDL book and … Read More
I am pleased to announce that Mentor Graphics has recently expanded Verification Academy to provide a “one-stop shop” for all your UVM/OVM and general verification information needs. As you may have noticed, the OVMWorld.org website has now been redirected to the Verification Academy and all of the content has been preserved, albeit reorganized a bit.
Of particular importance, the OVMWorld … Read More
