SEE: SVA Evaluation Engine

SEE is a unique technology developed by Axiom to verify SVA changes and show results of the change without the need to re-run simulation.

The SEE technology involves a special SVA Evaluation Engine built into the Designer graphical debugger and tightly integrated into MPSim’s kernel. During simulation SEE keeps track of the active assertions and their effect. When the assertions are modified SEE can quickly show the effect of the change without the need to run simulation again. This immediate feedback provides a very fast what-if analysis capability to users and enabling them to quickly identify the right set of assertions for maximum coverage.

MPSim’s thorough support for kernel-based SystemVerilog Assertions (SVA) is complemented with industry-unique advanced interactive SVA graphical debugger, packaged part of Axiom’s Designer graphical interface debugging suite.

SEE  incorporates a Visualizer to visualize the assertions, an Interpreter to check behavior, a Verifier to assess results, an Explorer to analyze, trace and modify assertions, and finally MPSim’s C³ (Comprehensive Coverage Closure) structural and functional coverage tool to measure assertions’ coverage, merge results and grade tests. SEE is a post-simulation-phase technology which does not require re-simulation for any of the above-mentioned extensive debugging steps.

This entire process is automated through a simple user-friendly interactive interface, which allows an extremely productive step-by-step assertions’ debugging and developing procedure loaded with a plethora of capabilities, of which neither one requires the re-simulation of tests, such as:

• Visualization of various properties by loading related signals onto Axiom’s Waveform Viewer
• Intelligent analysis of assertions’ failures
• Exploration of assertions’ expressions temporally, by spreading-out expressions into temporal sub-expressions
• Tracing to exact temporal sub-expressions which cause assertions’ failures
• On-the-fly modification of failed assertions, and getting results of changes by just reloading the Designer graphical interface
• Plugging-in whole new set of assertions interactively for productive on-the-fly what-if analysis
• Calculation of SVA assertions’ coverage through the industry’s most intelligent and advanced structural and functional coverage tool MPSim’s C3 (Comprehensive Coverage Closure), which allows collection, merging, analyzing, customizing, and filtering of coverage results, and grading diags based on that information  

SEE empowers the SVA assertions’ user to start with simple assertions, gradually debug through the interactive debugger, increasingly developing them into assertions with complex temporal expressions.