System and method for interactively controlling the course of a functional simulation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11295051-B2
Application number	US-201816118442-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2018
Priority date	Mar 13, 2018
Publication date	Apr 5, 2022
Grant date	Apr 5, 2022

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to system(s) and method(s) for interactively controlling the course of a functional simulation of DUV/SUV. The system comprises a testbench and the DUV/SUV connected to the testbench. The testbench generates a set of input data/packets as a stimulus to be processed by the DUV/SUV. The set of input data/packets is generated to simulate and verify the DUV/SUV. Further, the testbench identifies a pre-defined event at runtime during the simulation. Upon identification of the event, the testbench is configured to pause the simulation and transmit a notification message to a user indicating the occurrence of the event. Further, the testbench waits for a pre-defined time interval to receive one or more user inputs. The testbench further generates new stimulus based on the one or more user inputs and resumes the paused simulation with the new stimulus, thereby controlling the course of the functional simulation.

First claim

We claim:

1. A system for interactively controlling the course of a functional simulation based on user inputs, the system comprising:
a Design Under Verification or System Under Verification DUV/SUV, wherein the DUV/SUV is configured to process a set of input data/packets;
a testbench configured to:
communicate with the DUV/SUV;
generate the set of input data/packets as a stimulus to simulate and verify the DUV/SUV based on a target test case from a set of test cases;
identify occurrence of an event at runtime during simulation associated with the target test case, wherein the testbench is further configured to pause the simulation associated with the target test case upon identification of the event;
transmit an email message to a user, wherein the email message indicates the occurrence of the event during simulation associated with the target test case, and wherein the email message is in form of one or more commands displayed to the user to select as the one or more user inputs;
receive one or more user inputs in response to the email message using a “$system” system function that invokes a linux command, wherein the linux command corresponds to one or more of read all error registers, write to a specific register, read from a specific register, read status registers, and read counters;
direct the linux command corresponding to the one or more user inputs to a file, wherein the file is parsed to interpret the linux command and generate a structure, and wherein the structure is used to create a stimulus instructed by the user; and
resume the simulation and change the course of the simulation of the DUV/SUV based on the stimulus instructed by the user to read error registers, read status registers, or read counters based on the one or more user inputs received, thereby interactively controlling a course of functional simulation of the DUV/SUV.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the event is associated with a user defined condition at simulation runtime, and wherein the event corresponds to a predefined error, a predefined number of errors, a predefined number of stimulus generated or a normal completion of transactions.

3. The system of claim 1 , further configured to wait for a pre-defined time interval after the event notification in order to receive the one or more user inputs in response to the email message.

4. The system of claim 3 , further configured to terminate the simulation associated with the target test case, when one or more user inputs are not received before the pre-defined time interval.

5. A method for interactively controlling the course of a functional simulation of DUV/SUV based on user inputs, the method comprising steps of:
generating, a set of input data/packets as a stimulus to verify a DUV/SUV based on a target test case from a set of test cases;
identifying, occurrence of an event during simulation associated with the target test case, wherein the simulation associated with target test case is paused upon identification of the event;
transmitting, an email message to a user, wherein the email message indicates occurrence of the event during the simulation associated with the target test case, and wherein the email message is in form of one or more commands displayed to the user to select as the one or more user inputs;
receiving, one or more user inputs in response to the email message using a “$system” system function that invokes a linux command, wherein the linux command corresponds to one or more of read all error registers, write to a specific register, read from a specific register, read status registers, and read counters;
directing the linux command corresponding to the one or more user inputs to a file, wherein the file is parsed to interpret the linux command and generate a structure, and wherein the structure is used to create a stimulus instructed by the user; and
resuming, the paused simulation and change the course of the simulation of the DUV/SUV based on the stimulus instructed by the user to read error registers, read status registers, or read counters based on the one or more user inputs received thereby interactively controlling the course of a functional simulation of DUV/SUV.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the event is associated with a user defined condition at simulation runtime, and wherein the event corresponds to a predefined error, a predefined number of errors, a predefined number of stimulus generated or a normal completion of transactions.

7. The method of claim 5 , further comprises waiting for a pre-defined time interval after the event notification in order to receive the one or more user inputs in response to the email message, wherein the one or more user inputs correspond to one or more of read all error registers, write to a specific register, read from a specific register, read status registers, and read counters.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprises terminating the simulation associated with target test case, when the one or more user inputs are not received before the pre-defined time interval.

Assignees

• Hcl Technologies Ltd

Inventors

• MUTHIAH Manickam
• Nowshath Jabeer Ahamed Mohammed
• KRISHNAMOORTHY Sathish Kumar

Classifications

• G06F30/33 Primary

  Design verification, e.g. functional simulation or model checking · CPC title

• G06F30/333

  Design for testability [DFT], e.g. scan chain or built-in self-test [BIST] · CPC title

• G06F30/30

  Circuit design · CPC title

• G06F30/3308 Primary

  using simulation · CPC title