Testbench builder, system, device and method including a dispatcher

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016140284-A1
Application number	US-201514617610-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 9, 2015
Priority date	Nov 14, 2014
Publication date	May 19, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A testbench for testing a device under test (DUT), wherein the testbench has a verification environment including a reference model, a scoreboard and a customized agent for each interface that the DUT needs to receive input from and/or transmit output on. The testbench system is able to be generated by a testbench builder that automatically creates a scoreboard, a reference model, a dispatcher and generic agents including generic drivers, loopback ports, sequencers and/or generic monitors for each interface and then automatically customize the generic agents based on their corresponding interface such that the agents meet the requirements of the interface for the DUT.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A testbench system stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium for testing operation of a device under test, the testbench system comprising:
a plurality of agents coupled with the device under test, wherein one or more of the plurality of agents are configured to output one or more transactions to the device under test and a different one or more of the plurality of agents are configured to input one or more device responses to the transactions from the device under test; and a dispatcher including an agent table and coupled with a reference model, a scoreboard and the plurality of agents, wherein the dispatcher is configured to:
input data comprising a copy of each of the one or more transactions and the one or more device responses to the transactions;
identify whether each portion of the data is one of the copies of each of the one or more transactions or one of the device responses based on the agent table; and
route each portion of data identified as one of the copies of each of the one or more transactions to the reference model and each portion of data identified as one of the one or more device responses to the scoreboard.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the reference model is configured to mimic a desired function of the device under test by producing a reference response to each of a copy of the one or more transactions based on the desired function and the transaction.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the scoreboard is coupled with the reference module and configured to receive each of the reference responses from the reference model and for each transaction compare the associated reference response to the associated device response.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein in the agent table each of the plurality of agents is associated with either the reference model if the agent is one of the one or more of the plurality of agents that are configured to output the transactions to the device under test or the scoreboard if the agent is one of the different one or more of the plurality of agents that are configured to input the device responses from the device under test.

5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the dispatcher determines if data inputted is a copy of the copies of the transaction or one of the device responses by identifying whether the scoreboard or the reference model is associated with the agent of the plurality of agents that sent the data within the agent table.

6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein none of the plurality of agents are coupled to the scoreboard or the reference model.

7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein each of the plurality of agents comprise a monitor configured to sample the transactions and the device responses on an interface between the agent and the device under test and to automatically forward the sampled transactions and device responses to the dispatcher.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein each of the plurality of agents comprise a sequencer configured to produce a transaction for testing the device under test and a generic driver coupled with the sequencer, wherein the driver is configured to receive the transaction from the sequencer.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein each of the plurality of agents comprise a transporter coupled with the monitor and the driver and coupled with the device under test via the interface, wherein the transporter is configured to perform a handshake protocol with the device under test over the interface based on a class of the interface.

10 . The system of claim 9 , further comprising one or more additional agents coupled with one or more of the plurality of agents, wherein the one or more of the plurality of agents are configured to send data received from the device under test to the one or more additional agents.

11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the handshake protocol comprises one of the group consisting of a one-way handshake protocol without destination flow control, a two-way handshake protocol and a one-way handshake protocol with destination flow control.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the handshake protocol of the transporter of at least one of the plurality of agents is different than the handshake protocol of the transporter of a different one of the plurality of agents.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the device under test is a virtual emulation of an electronic device.

14 . A testbench builder for generating a testbench for verification of a device under test, wherein the testbench builder is stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium and configured to perform a method comprising:
reading an interface configuration file associated with the device under test and identifying a plurality of interfaces associated with the device under test defined in the interface configuration file; and generating a verification environment including an agent for each of the interfaces in the interface configuration file, a scoreboard, a reference module and a dispatcher, wherein each of the agents are coupled with the device under test, one or more of the agents are configured to output one or more transactions to the device under test, and a different one or more of the agents are configured to input one or more device responses to the transactions from the device under test, and further wherein the dispatcher includes an agent table and is coupled with the reference model, the scoreboard and the agents, wherein the dispatcher is configured to:
input data comprising a copy of each of the one or more transactions and the one or more device responses to the transactions;
identify whether each portion of the data is one of the copies of each of the one or more transactions or one of the device responses based on the agent table; and
route each portion of data identified as one of the copies of each of the one or more transactions to the reference model and each portion of data identified as one of the one or more device responses to the scoreboard.

15 . The testbench builder of claim 14 , wherein the reference model is configured to mimic a desired function of the device under test by producing a reference response to each of a copy of the one or more transactions based on the desired function and the transaction.

16 . The testbench builder of claim 15 , wherein the scoreboard is coupled with the reference module and configured to receive each of the reference responses from the reference model and for each transaction compare the associated reference response to the associated device response.

17 . The testbench builder of claim 16 , wherein in the agent table each of the plurality of agents is associated with either the reference model if the agent is one of the one or more of the plurality of agents that are configured to output the transactions to the device under test or the scoreboard if the agent is one of the different one or more of the plurality of agents that are configured to input the device responses from the device under test.

18 . The testbench builder of claim 17 , wherein generating the verification environment comprises generating the associations within the agent table based on interface parameters of the interface associated with the agent as defined in the interface configuration file.

19 . The testbench builder of claim 18 , wherein the dispatcher determines if the data inputted is a copy of the copies of the transactions or one of the device responses by identifying whether the scoreboard or the reference model is associated with the agent of the plu

Assignees

• Xpliant Inc

Inventors

• Han Keqin Kenneth
• Siva Nimalan
• Balan Mohan
• Patel Saurin

Classifications

• G06F30/20

  Design optimisation, verification or simulation (optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30) · CPC title

• G01R31/3177 Primary

  Testing of logic operation, e.g. by logic analysers · CPC title

• G06F11/261

  by simulating additional hardware, e.g. fault simulation · CPC title

• G06F11/2273

  Test methods · CPC title

• H04L43/50

  Testing arrangements · CPC title