Presentation
A Distributed Co-Simulation Environment and its Application in HW-FW Verification
SessionAdvanced Verification
DescriptionIn this talk, we present Cross Testbench (XTB), a distributed co-simulation environment that enables co-simulation across two simulation approaches, event-driven and cycle-based. Event-driven and cycle-based simulation are two commonly utilized verification approaches in the industry. The former takes into account delays and timings, is versatile, and works well with asynchronous systems, which makes it ideal for achieving highly accurate simulations. However, simulation speed depends on the model size and activity, making it slower for large designs. Whereas, cycle simulation is faster, scales better, and supports hardware acceleration, but does not include timing information, which makes it more suitable for large designs such as server microprocessors. Each approach has distinct benefits, and leveraging both ensures reliable and precise verification while maintaining rapid execution and extensive test coverage. We leveraged XTB to achieve chip-level verification allowing for interplay between parts of the design which were required to be simulated with event simulation (such as vendor delivered Verification IPs for physical parts), and the rest of it which utilized cycle simulation to achieve high throughput. We highlight the successful usage of XTB to verify IBM's memory buffer chip which integrates external IPs such as DDR5 and PCIe. In addition, we outline XTBs capability to save and restart in a distributed co-simulation to significantly improve performance in a production environment.
Event Type
Front-End Design
TimeTuesday, June 252:15pm - 2:30pm PDT
Location2010, 2nd Floor
Design
Engineering Tracks
Front-End Design