Simulator-independent system-on-chip verification methodology

Abstract

A method for communicating with and controlling design logic modules (“cores”) external to a system-on-chip (SOC) design during verification of the design uses verification software to generate and apply test cases to stimulate components of an SOC design in simulation; the results are observed and used to de-bug the design. Typically, SOC designs interface with cores that are external to the design. Existing methods of including such external cores in a verification test of a SOC design typically entail having to create special test cases to control the external cores; such test cases typically do not communicate with test cases being applied internally to the SOC and therefore lack realism. An external memory-mapped test device (EMMTD) according to the present invention is coupled between a SOC design being tested in simulation, and cores external to the SOC design. Internal EMMTD logic provides for control and status monitoring of an external core coupled to an EMMTD bi-directional bus by enabling functions including driving data on the bus, reading the current state of data on the bus, and capturing positive and negative edge transitions on the bus. In one embodiment, a test case being executed by a simulator embedded processor in the SOC can communicate with and control elements external to the SOC, by using the EMMTD to perform such functions as initiating external core logic which drives test signals to an internal core, directly controlling an internal core via its external interface, or determining the status of an external core.