Method and system for deterministic control of an emulation
View Patent ↗An emulation-based event-wait simulator including an application module to configure and command verification processes on a design under test (DUT). An event dispatcher is in communication with the application module to deliver commands to the DUT. A plurality of transactors are in communication with the event dispatcher to forward the commands to the DUT. A channel controller is in communication with the transactors to process and forward the commands to the DUT, wherein the channel controller also receives messages from the DUT, processes the messages, and forwards the messages to the transactors for delivery to the event dispatcher and the application module.
1. A deterministically operated emulation system for verifying performance of a device under test (DUT) comprising:
an application module that generates transactions to evaluate the DUT;
a hardware transactor coupled to the application module, the transactor converting the transactions to commands designated for the DUT;
an emulator coupled to the transactor, the emulator having a hardware channel controller that forwards the commands to the DUT, which produces a set of events in response to the commands;
an emulation clock that can be started by the application module and that can be stopped by the transactor, wherein the starting and stopping of the clock is accurate to within one clock cycle,
wherein the hardware transactor gathers the data while the clock is stopped and forwards the data to multiple output channels simultaneously when the clock is restarted, wherein multiple, independent parallel transactions are executed, and;
wherein the set of events can be viewed in real-time or recorded for later review and can be compared with a set of expected or predicted events to evaluate performance of the DUT.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the implementing logic on the channel controller controls the emulation clock so as to prevent simultaneous operation of the application module and the emulator.
3. A method for deterministically verifying the performance of a device under test (DUT) comprising:
generating transactions to evaluate the DUT;
converting the transactions to commands designated for the DUT;
forwarding the commands to the DUT, which produces a set of events in response to the commands, wherein the commands are forwarded in a manner responsive to an emulation clock that may be started and stopped by a channel controller so as to verify operation of the DUT;
wherein the emulation clock can be started by an application module and can be stopped by a hardware transactor, wherein the starting and stopping of the clock is accurate to within one clock cycle, and
wherein the hardware transactor, gathers the data while the clock is stopped, and forwards the data to multiple output channels simultaneously when the clock is restarted, wherein multiple, independent parallel transactions are executed; and
wherein the set of events can be viewed in real-time or recorded for later review and can be compared with a set of expected or predicted events to evaluate performance of the DUT.
4. The method of claim 3 further comprising stopping the emulation clock during the generating step and starting the emulation clock during the evaluating step.