Automated EDA Tools Enabling Fast And Efficient SOC Verification
A system on a chip or SOC is being increasingly employed in computers and mobile phones nowadays. As these chips are small in size, lightweight and consume less power, they have proved to be a perfect choice for use in computers and mobiles. A mobile phone is a kind of computer which enables users to perform various functions like storing files, communicating, performing calculations, playing games, etc. while on the go.
A system on a chip consists of millions of components like transistors, peripherals, etc.; all placed inside a single chip. When an instruction is given to a computer, it causes the electrical signals to move from one component to the other of the SOC for performing the intended function. The presence of a huge number of components in a SOC renders designing it quite a complex affair as semiconductor designers have to take care of every minute detail of its components and ensure the SOC design conforms to the specification.
Designing various components of a SOC manually, would consume a lot of time and effort of the semiconductor designers and add up to the costs in their chip design and development projects. To enable chip development teams to perform their SOC design related tasks in a fast and efficient manner, some prominent EDA suppliers have come up with innovative and technologically advanced tools. By using them, chip development teams would be able to automate their SOC design related tasks. This would save their time and effort besides enabling them to complete their projects faster. It would help to improve the productivity and profitability of the concerned chip development companies.
Such an automated tool would not only enable the chip development teams to perform their system on a chip design tasks efficiently and in less time, but would also let them perform a comprehensive and fast SOC verification and validation of the created chip design. So they can ensure it has been created by them as per the specification. Also, they can check whether it has been able to meet the customer expectations and requirements. By performing verification and validation of a system on a chip design, they can identify any errors left in it. So these can be corrected at the design stage itself. This would help to avoid the passage of the errors onto the manufacturing phase where removing them would become more costly and time consuming.
When it comes to performing verification of a SOC design, an automated tool would enable the chip designers to auto generate UVM test-bench consisting of monitors, bus agents, drivers, adaptors, predictors, sequences and sequencers. It will cover all the possible input scenarios. So they can complete the verification right at the first time. It would also enable them to achieve easy back-annotation from the test results. So the designers can better track the progress of their verification efforts. Also, they can generate an effective verification report.
In this way, using an innovative and technologically superior automated tool would enable the semiconductor designers to perform their system on a chip design and design verification tasks fast and efficiently and by utilizing less of their effort and time. So the concerned chip development companies can complete their projects within less time and budget. The tool would enable them to improve their productivity and profitability. Also, they can be more competitive and can well achieve their organizational goals. Thus, this tool would be playing a vital role in the success of the chip development firms.
