STING - A Versatile Design Verification Platform

STING, the flagship product of Valtrix Systems, is a bare metal software specially designed to serve as a platform for the design verification of IP/SoC implementations. The software stack consists of test generators, checkers, device drivers and a light-weight kernel which can be configured into a portable program as per the needs of the verification environment. The program can seamlessly boot on simulation, FPGA prototypes, emulation or silicon and execute the constrained random, directed or coverage based tests that the user programs or requests for.


The highly portable stimulus is controlled by a rich file based test specification scheme. High level of controllability is provided to the user for every test parameter so that every test condition can be mapped to a particular test configuration.


STING is developed with a vision to solve problems commonly seen in design verification and system validation. It embodies the best methodologies and practices in the industry whilst providing innovative solutions for the unique challenges in specific ecosystem. Designed for scalability and extensibility, companies can make full use of it across the spectrum of embedded, client and server SoCs.

IMPORTANT FEATURES

Stable and deterministic kernel with a tiny memory and instruction footprint ideal for simulation environments

Extremely fast test generation and execution to cover a large amount of verification space in a small amount of time

Run the exactly same portable stimulus on simulation, FPGA prototype, emulation or silicon without any change

Extensive hardware support including ARMv8, RISC-V and USB. Check the section below for details

Generates extremely tight sequences of code for faster closure on coverage

Interspersed directed and random testing for better coverage under different levels of stress

Configuration file based input to control kernel setup, test generation and execution

Special kernel and library APIs for design verification available to test developers to write stimulus generators

Clock, power, memory and interrupt management support provided by kernel to the test generators and device drivers

Support for standard verification algorithms is available with the library of test stimulus

KEY ADVANTAGES AND BENEFITS

Shift-left the design verification by using the same tool on simulation, emulation, FPGA prototypes and silicon; Test stimulus scales automatically on different hardware/software configurations; Improved throughput for test development and debug; Save on cost, time and resources spent on redundant verification

Test all IPs at once by concurrently enabling traffic; Covers all the IP cross-products thoroughly and throttle the system to its maximum; Advanced CPU and IO scheduling mechanisms in kernel ensures that the coverage goals are met in least possible time

Diverse test development mechanisms supported in the tool; Bias based mechanism to generate traffic for random testing needs; Supports a framework for development of directed tests using snippets of ASM like low level programming language; Allows C++ based test development for scenarios which require complex programming constructs

Large library of test stimulus shipped with the tool; Coverage for common test scenarios like message passing, memory coherency and consistency, cacheline sharing between IPs, pipeline hazards etc. and device drivers for multiple IPs provided in the library; The library of test stimulus ensures easy ramp into verification readiness

User friendly and intuitive design makes the tool usage easy for engineers. Specially designed user interface to make complex test specification easy; Easily interpretable test report file and debug logs with verbose information for manual/automated test intent analysis and failure debug; Extended documentation, FAQs and support manuals;

Ease of failure debug facilitated by a host of tool features; Consistent execution environment and reliable failure reproduction makes it easy to recreate a post-si failure in emulation or pre-si; Debug hooks and mechanisms implemented in tool which allow rapid failure debug and resolution; Mechanism to incrementally reduce the test content from failure point for quick triage;

Add custom extensions in the tool for proprietary IPs developed by companies; Test content management layer lets the native features to be randomized effectively with the new extensions developed; C++ based API makes it easy to develop standalone device drivers;

Multiple modes of execution available for different verification environments; Slower simulations can execute a mode where only the test is run on target and setup/check is done offline; On silicon, all the components can be run on the target for maximum test throughput

© 2020 Valtrix Technologies Private Limited. All Rights Reserved.