Chapter 4 - Structure and Re-use in Functional Verification

Abstract

This chapter discusses the importance of structure and re-use in functional verification environments. Structure in verification environments is critical to dealing efficiently with complex projects. A well-structured verification environment has many advantages, including the ability to manage the interactions of the verification components and to ease the task of test writing, which are often the most time-consuming aspects of a project. Critical to a structured environment is a well-planned, well documented set of modules that provide encapsulation of protocols—a consistent interface—so that higher layers of the protocol can be written in a more abstract fashion. This structured environment is not simple to create. It takes significant time and effort to design, write, and debug the layers. However, it is invaluable for managing the greater task of creating and running tests. The application of re-use both within and among projects can provide significant time and productivity improvements. Given the large cost of providing functional verification to a project, effective re-use of verification components and tests is becoming critical to controlling overall project costs and schedules.