New priority-based detection technologies within the Certitude system enable engineers to quickly find and fix the biggest problems first, optimizing the application of simulation and CPU resources. This priority-based approach allows users to run the Certitude software earlier and more often, providing incremental improvements to the verification environment and guidance on test and checker development.

The new software release also features simplified set-up and push-button integration with SpringSoft’s Verdi Debug System to enhance visualisation, source code tracing, and comprehension of analysis results. These capabilities provide a streamlined, more automated qualification flow that makes it easier for engineers to improve the verification of internal IP, assess the quality of third-party IP, and qualify SoC verification environments.

“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,” said George Bakewell, director of product marketing at SpringSoft. “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.”

SpringSoft research reveals that certain faults injected into the register transfer level (RTL) code are more likely to expose major holes in verification and produce results that are easier to analyse.  In the latest software release, faults are split into multiple prioritised classes. The faults are then automatically qualified in priority-order, exposing the most significant weaknesses first and providing early feedback on the overall health of the verification environment. These priority-based algorithms enable an incremental methodology that automatically accumulates qualification data over time to drive test development and checker creation. Faults that are detected early in the process don’t need to be re-qualified again unless the related RTL code changes, saving valuable time and computing resources. 

The latest release includes a utility that automatically creates Certitude setup files compiled for use by the Verdi system. This utility leverages the SpringSoft knowledge database (KDB) to build templates that can be modified by Certitude users to provide more detail and fine-tune parameters. Intuitive reports provide fault status information and show where faults have been injected into RTL code. 

In addition, a push-button link to the Verdi environment has been added to ease the analysis and debug process.  For any undetected fault, signal data can be dumped to SpringSoft’s Fast Signal Database (FSDB) format and the Verdi system invoked to display waveforms. Engineers can compare results of faulty and fault-free designs, highlight the differences, and automatically jump to the relevant source code for further investigation and debug using the structural visualization and tracing capabilities of the Verdi system.

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