Hardware Design Verification

Chapter 1. Chapter Highlights What is design verification?The basic verification principleVerification methodologySimulation-based verification versus formal verificationLimitations of formal verificationA quick overview of Verilog scheduling and ...

1.1. A design process transforms a set of specifications into an implementation of the specifications. At the specification level, the specifications state the functionality that the design executes but does not indicate how it executes. An impleme...

1.2. There are two types of design error. The first type of error exists not in the specifications but in the implementations, and it is introduced during the implementation process. An example is human error in interpreting design functionality. T...

1.3. A sound verification methodology starts with a test plan that details the specific functionality to verify so that the specifications are satisfied. A test plan consists of features, operations, corner cases, transactions, and so forth, such t...

1.4. The most prominent distinction between simulation-based verification and formal verification is that the former requires input vectors and the latter does not. The mind-set in simulation-based verification is first to generate input vectors an...

1.5. Formal verification, although offering exhaustive checking on properties, by no means guarantees complete functional correctness of design. Many factors can betray the confidence offered by formal verification. These factors include, but are i...

1.6. On the assumption that you have a good understanding of Verilog, we will not review the general syntax of Verilog. However, we will review the more advanced features of the languagenamely, scheduling and execution semanticsthey appear in vario...

1.7. In this chapter we defined design verification as the process of ensuring that a design meets its specificationsthe reverse of the design process. We discussed the general verification principle through redundancy, and simulation-based and for...