Assertion based reconfigurable testbenches for efficient verification and better reusability

Functional verification being the paramount in the design cycle of hardware IP; ample time and cost are spent for verifying the functional correctness of each and every hardware IP. The modern verification methodologies emphasize the concept of reusability to reduce the verification turn around time. The reusability aspect of each verification IP depends vastly on its implementation strategies & architecture. The paper discusses a methodology to build Reconfigurable Testbenches, for verifying design IPs which do not have any stringent implementation protocol. The proposed verification technique focuses on an approach for reconfiguring the golden behavioral model in the testbench to suit the various functional realizations of the design IP. Configuration parameter, along with Assertions ensures effective reconfigurability and reusability of the verification IP. The entire verification environment is modularized into reusable blocks for modifying the functional requirements at ease. Since the output prediction and checker model is designed independent of a global synchronizing signal with respect to the design under verification (DUV), it ensures minimum modification of the reusable blocks for verifying different user implementations of the DUV.