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PortableCoverage
Solution

Integration of Formal and Simulation Results and Coverage

Now that formal verification is part of mainstream verification and used on most chip designs, project managers need to understand the role played by formal tools and what they have contributed to the overall verification process. They also want to reduce verification effort by minimizing the overlap between formal and simulation. This requires an integration of formal and simulation coverage metrics for a unified view of coverage status. Similarly, the results of simulation tests and formal analysis must be annotated back into the verification plan to provide a comprehensive view of verification status against the project schedule. These quantitative metrics for results and coverage enable the verification team to determine next steps and assess when the design is ready for tape-out (ASICs) or the bring-up lab (FPGAs).

OneSpin’s PortableCoverage™ solution provides this integration in an open flow that works with any simulator, coverage database, coverage viewer or verification planning tool. Users are free to choose best-in-class tools from multiple vendors while getting full credit for the verification perform by the OneSpin suite of formal tools. The PortableCoverage solution uses four formal apps to provide different aspects of the integration:

  • The Coverage Closure Accelerator (CCA) App analyzes the design, identifies unreachable coverage targets, and provides them to the simulator or coverage viewer. This provides more accurate coverage metrics, ensures that the verification team doesn’t waste time in simulation trying to hit coverage targets that are unreachable, and accelerates coverage closure.
  • The Quantify™ App calculates how well the assertions cover the design, providing guidance on where additional assertions may be needed. This calculation is performed by model-based mutation coverage, a unique technology that is far more precise than other assertion quality measures. No changes to the design or re-compilations are required.
  • The Verification Coverage Integration (VCI) App adds the model-based mutation coverage metrics from Quantify into the user’s existing coverage database. The coverage viewer can then display the integrated formal and simulation metrics, providing a unified view of coverage status.
  • The Verification Planning Integration (VPI) App annotates formal results from OneSpin’s tools into the verification plan. The integrated formal and simulation results provide a comprehensive view of progress against the verification plan. It also ensures that engineers can meet stringent safety standards by providing links that track verification results back to the design specification.

All of these apps leverage the formal verification technology provided by OneSpin 360 DV-Inspect™ and OneSpin 360 DV-Verify™. 


Get the PortableCoverage datasheets

For a technical description of each app, please read the OneSpin App datasheet…