Does RISC-V processor verification provide common ground to develop a new verification methodology, and will that naturally lead to new and potentially open tools?

SE: Open source enables collaboration. Until now, no two companies have used the same verification methodology. RISC-V may be the first time that enough people have been working on a common problem to be able to devise a solution within the…

What makes a good verification engineer? It’s not always about technical expertise, and it’s rarely just about verification.

The practice of semiconductor verification has changed substantially over the years, and will continue to do so. The skillset needed for functional verification 20 years ago is hardly recognizable as a verification skillset today, and the same should be expected moving forward as design and verification becomes more abstract, the boundary…

Reliability concerns throughout a device’s lifetime are driving fundamental changes in where and when these functions occur.

While the disciplines of functional verification and test serve different purposes, their histories were once closely intertwined. Recent safety and security monitoring requirements coupled with capabilities being embedded into devices is bringing them closer together again, but can they successfully cooperate…

Developing these systems is just part of the challenge. Making sure they only do what they’re supposed to do may be even harder.

New techniques and approaches are starting to be applied to AI and machine learning to ensure they function within acceptable parameters, only doing what they’re supposed to do.
Getting AI/ML/DL systems to work has been one of the biggest leaps in technology in recent years, but understanding how to control and optimize…

A collaboration to verify the Open Source CV32E40P (PULP RI5CY) core using industrial grade techniques provides a set of guidelines for the community.

Modern SoC verification has matured to the point that some are suggesting the use of the word ‘prototype’ when referring to the first silicon samples is now unnecessary. This is due in part to the commercial EDA industry, which has provided the innovation and tools used…

Open-source architecture is gaining some traction in more complex designs as ecosystem matures.

RISC-V vendors are beginning to aim much higher in the compute hierarchy, targeting data centers and supercomputers rather than just simple embedded applications on the edge.
In the past, this would have been nearly impossible for a new instruction set architecture. But a growing focus on heterogeneous chip integration, combined with the reduced benefits of…

Imperas examples of RISC-V Custom Instructions featuring the ChaCha20 stream cipher are used to illustrate the flexibility of the open standard ISA of RISC-V.

The electronics industry seems to have gone crazy for RISC-V. But why? What is RISC-V and how can you participate in it? If you’ve read anything in passing, you’ll know it is a type of processor, and there are some chips available that use it. You may also know that it is "free and open," which primarily accounts for…

What does open-source verification mean in the context of a RISC-V processor core? Does it provide free tools, free testbenches, or the freedom to innovate?

Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss what open source verification means today and what it should evolve into, with Jean-Marie Brunet, senior director for the Emulation Division at Siemens EDA; Ashish Darbari, CEO of…

How RISC-V verification ecosystems support flexibility in approaching a custom processor design.

This article is derived from a talk at the RISC-V Summit in December 2020 that Bill McSpadden, principal verification engineer at Seagate Technology, gave on the challenges and experiences his team faced in the verification of two custom RISC-V processor cores. While a technical presentation at a technical conference may not be…