System-level Performance Verification of Multicore Systems-on-Chip

MCSoC are comprised of a rich set of processor cores, specialized hardware accelerators, and I/O interfaces. Focusing only on functional verification is risky because the motivation for building such systems in the first place is to achieve high levels of system throughput: a functionally correct MCSoC that does not exhibit sufficient performance will fail in the market. Furthermore, focusing performance verification on individual system components (e.g., measuring processor core performance or hardware accelerator performance in isolation) is insufficient due to (1) the degree of resource contention that occurs in the MCSoC, and (2) the degree of configuration flexibility that is typically afforded by an MCSoC. These factors motivate system-level performance verification of MCSoC. This paper presents an important industrial case study of MCSoC performance verification, highlighting the methodology used, the lessons learned, and recommendations for improvement.