Verification of a CAN bus model in SystemC with functional coverage

Many heterogeneous embedded systems, for example industrial automation and automotive applications, require hard-real time constraints to be exhaustively verified - which is a challenging task for the verification engineer. To cope with complexity, verification techniques working on different abstraction levels are best practice. SystemC is a versatile C++ based design and verification language, offering various mechanisms and constructs required for embedded systems modeling. Using the add-on SystemC Verification Library (SCV) elemental constrained-random stimuli techniques may be used for verification. However, SCV has several drawbacks such as lack of functional coverage. In this paper we present a functional coverage library that implements parts of the IEEE 1800-2005 SystemVerilog standard and allows capturing functional coverage throughout the design and verification process with SystemC. Moreover, we will demonstrate the usability of the approach with a case study working on a CAN bus model written in SystemC.