覆盖方法在HDL测试中的应用

Application of Coverage in HDL Validation

基于仿真的验证和形式验证是用于测试的两种方法。由于形式验证难以用于大型设计的测试,所以HDL验证的主要方法是通过大量的测试向量仿真HDL代码来完成。实际中一般运用覆盖方法来分析仿真的完备性,虽然100%的覆盖并不能表明程序100%的没有错误,但却是衡量测试是否完成的一个重要标准。文中主要分析了代码覆盖和功能覆盖方法,并给出了具体例子。

Simulation-based validation and formal verification are two main techniques used to verify correctness.Up to now,the best way of HDL verification is to simulate the HDL design with a massive amount of test pattern because formal verification techniques are fre-quently intractable for large design.In practice,some well-defined functional coverage metrics are used to perform a quantitative analysis of simulation completeness.Although 100% coverage cannot guarantee a 100% error-free design,it provides a critical standard to measure the completeness of the verification process.Code coverage,functional coverage are analysized,and their corresponding examples are given.