( DAC 00 Item 17 ) --------------------------------------------- [ 7/13/00 ]
Subject: Synopsys NDA 'Verification Analyst', Synopsys NDA 'Ketchum'
A LITTLE NDA CONFUSION HERE: If you dove into the Synopsys NDA demo suites
at DAC this year, you might have been confused. Under NDA Synopsys
discussed two related but different tools. The first one was a tool
very much like 0-in called "Verification Analyst" (VA). What VA does is
it has "Temporal Assertions" very much like 0-in's "Checkers" and an
"Observation Based Coverage Engine" (also like 0-in.) And, just like
0-in, you feed it your design, your test suite, and your Assertions, and
then you play the 20-Question Game to see what situations aren't covered
by your test suite, etc. Verification Analyst was the result of an
off-site brainstorming session with the Synopsys VERA, Covermeter, and
VCS R&D guys. VA's main difference from 0-in is that its Assertion
language is supposedly simpler and more power to use over 0-in -- it
can easily traverse hierarchies and handles multiple clock domains
without a problem (or that's at least what Synopsys claims.) Their other
bragging point is that VA will run super fast because it'll have direct
links to the VCS simulator through the Synopsys VeriC/DKI interface that
they discussed under NDA in their demo suite. (Other tools will have to
go through the slower PLI.)
The second Synopsys NDA demo during DAC covered a product called "Ketchum"
(which was named after the Pokemon character "Ketchum" who tries to catch
all other Pokemons.) Ketchum is a semi-formal automatic test generator
that creates functional (not ATPG) vectors. It typically focuses on FSMs
and can craft a small set of functional vectors that will test every state
in your chips internal state machines.
As can be expected, customers are confusing these two related yet very
different Synopsys products.
"I did look at the 'semi-formal' tools, like Assertion Compiler from
Silicon Forest, Verix and Verix Pro from Real Intent, Ketchum from
Synopsys, 0-in Check and Search from 0-in, and Solidify from Averant.
I would definitely like my designers to use something like this. I
think the real key to that is for the tool to be very easy to use
(i.e. it must be very simple to write the pragmas that tell it what
your code is trying to do.) I think 0-in and Real Intent have real
winners here, while Averant's language is much too verbose. Ketchum
is Synopsys' attempt to play catch-up here, and since it won't be out
till next year, they may lose this market segment."
- an anon engineer
|
|
