SystemVerilog checkers. simulator support. usage in a UVM environment

[ljepson74]

Q1) How well do the major simulators support SystemVerilog checkers (1800-2012.pdf Section 17.)?

Q2) In (the) UVM, do you think there is a place for checkers?

 

Context)  We have VHDL rtl.   For the data-interface between modules ABC and XYZ, we want to consolidate our protocol checking.  

case1) ABC testbench.  We now have the protocol checking in the sv interface which ABC and XYZ share

case2) XYZ testbench.               the same

case3) Top level testbench (testing DUT which instantiates ABC and XYZ).  Either we have to move the protocol checking to a module which is bind-ed to the VHDL.  Or, we can bind the sv interface to the ABC-XYZ connection, to reuse the protocol checking of that interface.

 

Without using a macro or `include of the protocol checking code, I'd like to just have a package or some place where we store the protocol checking code and can reuse it, whether in an sv interface, or a module which we bind to the VHDL.  Looking into this, and researching putting assertions into packages, I discovered checkers.  Hence this line of questioning.

 

 

Please share your thoughts and experience. 

 

 

[apfitch]

I think support for checkers is presently limited. The best thing would be to write a simple piece of code and try compiling it in the tool you are using,

 

regards

Alan

[ljepson74]

Thanks, Alan.  I tried a simple example and discovered that checkers aren't supported in irun 12.2.

 

I don't know about the other simulators, and suppose that time will tell whether the gurus that prescribe style/best-practices will find a place for checkers in the UVM.

[ljepson74]

2+ years later ...

 Does anyone have new information on checker support and/or best practices for usage?

[tudor.timi]

Not much has changed. I've tried to declare a checker in all 3 BigEDA simulators and all of them complained of syntax errors (granted, for some I didn't have the latest and greatest versions).

[sri.cvcblr]

I  know that both VCS and Questa supports checker. Few quarters/years back even Aldec's Riviera-PRO added some basic support. For VCS there is a special flag needed to compile it though.

 

Regards,

Srini

http://www.verifworks.com