“申威-1号”高性能微处理器的功能验证

Functional Verification of "ShenWei-1" High Performance Microprocessor

微处理器设计日趋复杂,如何对微处理器设计进行有效而充分的验证,成为芯片流片成功的关键因素之一.在介绍微处理器功能验证的一般理论和方法的基础上,介绍了"申威-1号"高性能微处理器的功能验证所采用的验证策略及各种验证方法.RTL(register transfer level)级验证是功能验证的重点,模拟验证是"申威-1号"RTL级验证的主要验证手段.详细介绍了如何综合采用多种验证技术来解决RTL级模拟验证的几个关键问题:高质量测试激励生成、模拟结果正确性的快速判断以及验证覆盖率目标的实现.最后对各种验证方法所取得的验证效果进行了分析.

Today＇s microprocessor designs are becoming more and more complicated, so effective and sufficient verification is one of the key factors to the success of design tape-out. This paper firstly introduces some common theories and methods in microprocessor functional verification, and then introduces the verification strategies and various verification methods used to verify ＂ShenWei-1＂ high performance microprocessor. The RTL （register transfer level） verification is highly important for functional verification. Simulation-Based verification is the main method in ＂ShenWei-1＂ RTL verification, and this paper introduces how to use all kinds of verification technologies to solve the key problems of the RTL simulation-based verification： Generating high quality stimulus, checking simulation results quickly, reaching the target of verification coverage. At the end, this paper analyses the effects of all kinds of verification methods.