Microprocessor Verification Framework For SPARC-LEON Microprocessor

Abstract

Verification is a crucial part of an engineering project to assure quality of the product. In digital design, verification is a heavily researched topic as companies desperately look for ways to make the process faster and more reliable. The challenge only grows by the day as designs ambitiously swell in size and complexity. The language used, the methodology followed, the goal of verification and the evaluation of the verification process itself are some important aspects to be decided upon before commencement of this imperative exercise. Directed testcases can overlook peculiar cases which can easily be encountered by allowing a certain degree of randomness in test vectors. In this thesis it is shown how verification can be improved by randomizing test inputs. The usefulness of functional coverage is also elucidated. It is also shown how randomizing test vectors and implementing functional coverage compliment each other. While randomization help achieve coverage goals faster, the results from functional coverage can be analysed to update test vector generation. The design at hand is the SPARC based LEON-3 microprocessor by Cobham Gaisler. The above tasks were performed by maintaining the spirit of software-based testing.