TripleCheck IP Validator helps IP developers verify that their designs comply with the specifications that define standard interfaces. TripleCheck works in conjunction with the Cadence Verification IP (VIP) Catalog to simplify and accelerate compliance testing and interface verification by providing the three things that verification engineers need most: a test suite, coverage model, and verification plan.
Test suite
TripleCheck provides an extensive library of test sequences to stimulate the design under test (DUT). The test library contains directed tests (quick checks for protocol compliance) as well as constrained-random test sequences (exhaustive testing to detect corner-case bugs hidden in the DUT). The tests support error injection in each layer of the protocol stack to check operation of the DUT when faced with non-compliant stimulus.
Coverage model
Coverage models are provided in both SystemVerilog and e verification languages. These pre-defined coverage models capture all data items and state-machine transitions to track and measure verification progress. The coverage models are open and documented, which allows users to extend them with application-specific coverage definitions.
Verification plan (vPlan)
TripleCheck provides a verification plan (vPlan) that mirrors the protocol specification. All the requirements in the protocol specification are listed in the vPlan and organized into the same chapter and paragraph hierarchy as the specification.
The vPlan is linked to the coverage model so that the coverage data captured during simulation runs are automatically mapped against the plan. Annotations on the vPlan display the percentage of completion for all coverage objectives. This makes it easy to track verification progress and determine how much work remains. The vPlan is written in XML to enable portability between simulation environments.
Integration
TripleCheck integrates with the Cadence VIP Catalog's PureView GUI to help users get started quickly (see Figure 1). When the user configures a VIP with PureView, the TripleCheck test suite, coverage model, and vPlan are automatically configured to match the VIP.
Integration between PureView and TripleCheck
TripleCheck tests work with all major simulators. In the Cadence Incisive environment, TripleCheck integrates with Incisive Enterprise Manager to enable a number of productivity-boosting features such as bucket analysis to analyze coverage details and test profiling to sort out unproductive test sequences (see Figure 2).
A section of a PCI Express 3.0 vPlan viewed with Incisive Enterprise Manager showing the percentage of coverage goals completed for each paragraph