Distributed State Functional Coverage for Circuit Verification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current design verification techniques for microdevices, such as integrated microcircuits, often rely on incomplete test benches that fail to adequately cover all operational states and data transactions, leading to insufficient functional coverage and potential manufacturing errors.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of distributed state and data functional coverage tools that simulate circuit designs using test benches, identify multiple components for combined analysis based on data transactions, and generate metrics to quantify coverage, presenting results in a graphical display to show how test benches exercise identified components during simulation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional test benches are used for functional verification, then the verification process is simple to implement, but the functional coverage is insufficient and manufacturing errors may occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the functional verification process into multiple independent coverage metric generators, each responsible for specific components or modules. This allows distributed analysis of functional coverage across different parts of the circuit design, improving overall coverage without requiring a monolithic complex verification system
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces coverage metrics as intermediary elements that mediate between the test bench execution and the functional verification assessment. These metrics capture and quantify the functional coverage achieved, providing a structured way to measure and improve verification completeness without directly increasing system complexity
2Reliability
If comprehensive test benches covering all operational states are implemented, then functional coverage is improved, but the time and resources required for simulation increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary identification of components and data transactions before executing comprehensive simulations. By pre-defining coverage metrics and identifying relevant components based on data transactions, the system prepares the verification framework in advance, allowing more efficient simulation execution that achieves comprehensive coverage without excessive time consumption
Solution Approach 2:
The coverage metric generators automatically identify components and analyze data transactions during simulation, performing self-service analysis without requiring manual intervention for each test case. This automation reduces the time and resources needed to achieve comprehensive functional coverage
Data Source
AI summary
This application discloses a computing system to implement a design verification tool and simulate a circuit design with a test bench. The computing system can correlate transactions captured during simulation of a circuit design to distributed states for multiple components in the circuit design. The computing system can identify at least a portion of the distributed states for the multiple components correspond to system level coverage events. The computing system can generate a graphical presentation to illustrate the portion of the distributed states for the multiple components in the circuit design that correspond to system level coverage events.