Imperas Announces Ratifications, Test Suites, and Functional Coverage Libraries for RISC-V

By Chad Cox

Production Editor

Embedded Computing Design

December 19, 2022

News

Image Provided by Imperas

Oxford, United Kingdom. Imperas Software Ltd. revised its ImperasDV for maintaining the expansion of RISC-V verification supporting both RTL bug detection and analysis while collaborating with design flow implementation in EDA SystemVerilog environments with Cadence, Siemens EDA, and Synopsys. Imperas leverages RISC-V for its ability to be customized for specific industry needs. “RISC-V offers new freedoms in design flexibility which is driving a new wave of innovation across the semiconductor industry in almost all market segments,” said Larry Lapides, VP of Sales at Imperas Software Ltd.

Verification IP – SystemVerilog Functional coverage library: riscvISACOV

Design Verification (DV) teams utilize coverage analysis as the key metric toward finalizing verification plans. The ImperasDV Verification IP extends to contain riscvISACOV, a collection of SystemVerilog source functional coverage libraries. For detailed information, visit https://github.com/riscv-verification/riscvISACOV. “Through the dedicated efforts of the specialist verification teams, with standards such as UVM and SystemVerilog, SoC verification is now a ‘solved-problem’,” said Simon Davidmann, CEO at Imperas Software Ltd.

Verification IP - Test suites

Architectural validation test suites assist RISC-V developers in making sure hardware implementations meet expectations of the software environment supporting RISC-V. The ImperasDV Verification IP has been revised to include architectural validation test suites intended for RV32E, RV64E, Zc, and Zmmul specifications. Follow the link for further information,  https://github.com/riscv-ovpsim/imperas-riscv-tests.

RVVI (RISC-V Verification Interface)

RVVI offers a general approach to key elements of the testbench to link the RTL instruction trace and reference models to utilize the ‘lock-step-compare’ verification methodology. With the RVVI, Designers have access to RISC-V specifications and features for projects that include:

  • Designs with privilege modes
  • Vector extensions,
  • Out-of-order pipelines,
  • Multi-threading
  • Multi-hart
  • Multi-issue
  • User-defined custom instructions and extensions

Davidmann continues, “As SoC developers embrace the freedoms of RISC-V, verification solutions and methodologies based on the established flows with UVM and SystemVerilog are allowing SoC DV teams to scale up to the complexities of RISC-V processor verification. ImperasDV provides the path from the established SoC techniques into the new challenges of RISC-V verification. A clear must-have for any solution is a complete design flow with full compatibility with the big 3 EDA environments to maintain the efficiency and throughput as the industry brings ever more complex designs to market without delay.”

More information on RVVI is available at https://github.com/riscv-verification/RVVI

For even more information, visit imperas.com, and watch an interview below with Rich Nass, Executive Vice President, Embedded Computing Design, and Simon Davidman.

 

Chad Cox. Production Editor, Embedded Computing Design, has responsibilities that include handling the news cycle, newsletters, social media, and advertising. Chad graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a B.A. in Cultural and Analytical Literature.

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