The 4th C in Verification

The 3C’s of verification i.e. Constraints, Checkers & Coverage have been playing an important role enabling faster verification closure. With growing complexity and shrinking market windows it is important to introduce the 4^th C that can be a game changer in actually differentiating your product development life cycle. Interestingly the 4^th C is less technical but highly effective in results. It is agnostic to the tool or flow or methodology but if introduced and practiced diligently would surely result in multi-fold returns. Since verification claims almost 70%of the ASIC design cycle, it is evident that timely sign off on DV would be the key to faster time to market of the product. Yes, the 4^th C I am referring to is Collaboration!

UVM demonstrates a perfect example of collaboration within the verification fraternity to converge on a methodology that benefits everyone. Verification today spreads beyond RTL simulations to high level model validation, virtual platform based design validation, analog model validation, static checks, timing simulations, FPGA prototyping/emulation and post silicon validation. What this means is that we need to step out and collaborate with different stakeholders enabling faster closure.

The first & foremost being the architecture team, RTL designers & analog designers who conceive the design and realize it in some or the other form and many a times fall short of accurate documentation. The architecture team can help to a large extent in defining the context under which theverification needs to be carried out thereby narrowing down the scope. With a variety of tools available, the DV teams can work closely with designers to clean the RTL removing obvious issues that otherwise would stall simulation progress. Further, assertion synthesis and coverage closure would help in closing the verification at different levels smoothly. Working with analog designers can help tune the models and their validation process wrt the circuit representation of the design. This enables faster closure of designs that see increased scope of analog on silicon.

Next are the tools that we use. It is important to collaborate with the EDA vendors in not just being the user of the tool but working closely with them in anticipating the challenges expected in the next design and be early adopters of the tools to flush the flows and get ready for the real drill. Similarly, joining hands with the IP & VIP vendors is equally crucial. Setting up right expectations with the IP vendors on the deliverables from verification view point i.e. coverage metrics, test plans, integration guide, integration tests etc. would help in faster closure on SoC verification. Working with VIP vendors to define how best to leverage the VIP components, sequences, tests & coverage etc. at block and SoC level avoids redundant efforts and help in closing verification faster.

The design service providers augment the existing teams bringing the required elasticity to the project needs or take up ownership of derivatives and execute them. These engineers are exposed to a variety of flows and methodologies while contributing to different projects. They can help in introducing efficiency to the existing ways of accomplishing tasks. Auditing existing flows and porting the legacy environment to better ones is another way these groups can contribute effectively if partnered aptly.

Finally the software teams that bring life to the HW we verify. In my last blog I highlighted the need for HW & SW teams to work more closely and how verification teams acts as a bridge between the two. Working closely with the SW teams can improve reusability and eliminate redundancies in the efforts.

Collaboration today is the need of the hour! We need to be open to recognize the efforts put in by different stakeholders from the ecosystem to realize a product. Collaboration improves reuse and avoids a lot of wasted efforts in terms of repeated work or incorrect understanding of intent. Above all, the camaraderie developed as part of this process would ensure that any or all these folks are available at any time to jump in the hour of need to cover for unforeseen effects of Murphy’s law.

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This a guest post by Gaurav Jalan, general chair at DVCON India