SpringSoft, a supplier of IC design software, has introduced a new version of Certitude Functional Qualification System, which it claims to remove verification uncertainty and accelerates functional closure for intellectual property (IP) and system-on-chip (SoC) designs with automation technologies that identify weaknesses that could allow bugs to go undetected.
The company claims that the new priority-based detection technologies within the Certitude system enable engineers to find and fix the biggest problems first, optimising the application of simulation and CPU resources. It allows users to run the Certitude software earlier and provide incremental improvements to the verification environment and guidance on test and checker development.
According to SpringSoft, the new software release also features set-up and push-button integration with Verdi Automated Debug System to enhance visualisation, source code tracing and comprehension of analysis results. It splits the faults into multiple prioritised classes and are then automatically qualified in priority-order. The priority-based algorithms enable an incremental methodology, that automatically accumulates qualification data over time to drive test development and checker creation.
In addition, the new release includes a utility that automatically creates Certitude setup files compiled for use by the Verdi system. The utility leverages the SpringSoft knowledge database to build templates that can be modified by Certitude users.
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The push-button link to the Verdi environment eases the analysis and debug process. For any undetected fault, signal data can be dumped to Fast Signal Database (FSDB) format and the Verdi system invoked to display waveforms, SpringSoft said.
George Bakewell, director of product marketing at SpringSoft, said: “With verification environments becoming more complex than the designs themselves, functional qualification applies automated mutation-based techniques to obtain an objective measurement of verification quality. Our latest release of Certitude takes this approach even further.
“The powerful combination of advanced detection technologies, intelligent operation, and incremental use model makes functional qualification practical for a broader range of users and verification applications.”
