Abstract: The time, effort and expense required to develop verification software for testing and de-bugging system-on-chip (SOC) designs represents a considerable investment. According to the method of the present invention, a portion of such verification software may be re-used in an operating system (OS) (i.e., a system used for, e.g., general business, technical or scientific applications as opposed to software testing) to capitalize on the investment. The verification software includes low-level device drivers (LLDDs) which were coded for and paired with specific device designs (“cores”) throughout the verification process, and were consequently also verified (i.e., de-bugged) in the process. Thus, the low-level device drivers represent reliable software with detailed knowledge of the corresponding devices.

Abstract: A method for efficiently changing the embedded processor type in verification of system-on-chip (SOC) integrated circuit designs containing embedded processors. The verification software is used to generate and apply test cases to stimulate components of a SOC design (“cores”) in simulation; the results are observed and used to de-bug the design. Typically, the embedded processor type changes as SOC designs change. However, changing the processor type may cause errors in verification due to the presence of processor-specific code distributed throughout the verification software. Thus, changing the processor type can entail a substantial re-write of the verification software. In the method according to the present invention, in verification software for verifying a SOC design including an embedded processor, processor-specific code is localized in a processor driver.

Abstract: A method and structure for a verification test bench system for testing an interface of a system-on-a-chip (SOC) that includes a verification interface model connected to the SOC interface and a test bench external bus interface unit (EBIU) connected to the verification interface model. The test bench EBIU is connected to a SOC EBIU within the SOC. The test bench EBIU and the SOC EBIU are mastered by the same processor in the SOC, such that the SOC interface and the verification interface model are programmed by the same test case running in the SOC.

Abstract: A method for developing re-usable software for the efficient verification of system-on-chip (SOC) integrated circuit designs. The verification software is used to generate and apply test cases to stimulate components of a SOC design (“cores”) in simulation; the results are observed and used to de-bug the design. The software is hierarchical, implementing a partition between upper-level test application code which generates test cases and verifies results, and low-level device driver code which interfaces with a core being simulated, to apply the test case generated by the upper-level code on a hardware level of operations. Test application and supporting low-level device driver pairs are used and re-used to test their corresponding component cores throughout the SOC development process, by creating higher-level test control programs which control selected combinations of the already-developed test application and device driver programs to test combinations of SOC components.