While Moore’s law continues to guide innovation and
complexity in semiconductors, there are other factors that are further
accelerating it. From iPod to iPhone5 via iPad, Apple has redefined the
dynamics of this industry. New product launches include one from Apple every
year, equally competitive and multiple products from other players and from
Chinese cell phone makers every 3 months. There is an ever increasing demand of
adding multiple functions to the SoCs while getting it right the 'first time' in
'limited time'. IP and sub system reuse has controlled the design lag of these
SoCs significantly. While IP is assumed to be pre-verified at block level, the
total time required to verify the SoC still is significant. A lot of this
attributed to –
- Need for a staged approach to verify integration
of the IPs on SoC
- Need to run concurrency tests, performance tests and use case scenarios
- Prolonged simulation time due to large design size
- Deploying multiple techniques to converge on verification
closure
- Extended debug due to test bench complexity, test case
complexity and all of the above
These challenges coupled with Murphy’s law conspire to
pose a question on the verification schedule that claims a significant portion
of the SoC design cycle. In the blog post Failure and Rescue, the author
points to an interesting fact, “…things can and will
go wrong. Yet some have a better capacity to prepare for the possibility, to
limit the damage, and to sometimes even retrieve success from failure”. This
directly applies to SoC verification too. Verification leads and managers are
expected to build teams and ensure that the tools and processes deployed will
diminish perceived risks while reduce unforeseen ones. The process involves bringing
in engineers, tools and processes that match the project requirements. For
effective management and resiliency, one needs HANUMAN to bring in balance to
execution amidst uncertainty.
Who is Hanuman? HANUMAN
is a Hindu deity,
an ardent devotee of Lord Rama. With the commencement of festive season in India, number
of mythological stories gain prominence. Hanuman is a central character in the Indian epic Ramayana,
and also finds mentions in several other texts. He is also referred to as
‘Sankat Mochan’ i.e. SAVIOR who helped Lord Rama in precarious circumstances
during the fight against evil. Last season, we correlated these epics with
Verification here.
So where does HANUMAN find relevance in Verification?
SoCs today cannot be verified just with a team of
verification engineers and a simulator. The process demands much more viz –
- Meticulous planning on what to verify, how to verify, who
will verify what and when we are done.
- Architecting the verification infrastructure to address
verification plan development & tracking, test scenario generation, VIP
sourcing and integration, assertion identification, coverage collection, power
aware simulations, acceleration or emulation, regression management and automated
triaging.
- Engineers, who can use the infrastructure efficiently,
are experts in protocols and methodology, strong with problem solving and
debugging.
Handling complexity amidst dubiety demands a RESCUER
i.e. HANUMAN. The stakes are high and so are the challenges. Multiple intricate
situations arise during the course of verification to decelerate the schedule.
The RECOVERER from such situations can be an engineer, a tool or a methodology and
that entity at that instance is a manifestation of HANUMAN.
Sit and recall your past projects...
...if you delivered in such situations, feel proud to be one
...if you identify someone who did it, acknowledge one
...if you haven't till now then be one!
May these avatars of HANUMAN continue to drive your
silicon ‘right the first time and every time’.
Happy Dussehra!
