Verification of a microprocessor using real world applications

In this paper, we describe a fast and convenient verification methodology for microprocessor using large-size, real application programs as test vectors. The verification environment is based on automatic consistency checking between the golden behavioral reference model and the target HDL model, which are run in an handshaking fashion. In conjunction with the automatic comparison facility, a new HDL saver is proposed to accelerate the verification process. The proposed saver allows "restart" from the nearest checkpoint before the point of inconsistency detection regardless of whether any modification on the source code is made or not. It is to be contrasted with the conventional saver that does not allow restart when some design change, or debugging is made. We have proved the effectiveness of the environment through applying it to a real world example, i.e., Pentium-compatible processor design process. It was shown that the HDL verification with the proposed saver can be faster and more flexible than the hardware emulation approach. In short, it was demonstrated that restartability with source code modification capability is very important in obtaining the short debugging turnaround time by eliminating a large number of redundant simulations.