What are the key functional verification trends for emerging domains such as automotive, IoT, and 5G?

1 Safety-critical standards

One of the main drivers of functional verification trends for automotive, IoT, and 5G is the need to comply with safety-critical standards, such as ISO 26262 for automotive, IEC 61508 for industrial, and 3GPP for 5G. These standards define the requirements and best practices for ensuring the functional safety of systems that can potentially harm people, property, or the environment. They also specify the levels of assurance and rigor that verification activities must achieve, depending on the risk and impact of failures. To meet these standards, verification engineers need to adopt systematic and comprehensive verification methodologies, such as the Universal Verification Methodology (UVM), and leverage advanced verification tools, such as formal methods, fault injection, and coverage analysis.

2 Security requirements

Another key trend for functional verification in emerging domains is the increasing demand for security. As systems become more connected, distributed, and data-driven, they also become more vulnerable to cyberattacks, data breaches, and malicious tampering. Security is not only a concern for the end-users, but also for the system developers, who need to protect their intellectual property and prevent reverse engineering. To address these security challenges, verification engineers need to incorporate security features and mechanisms into their designs, such as encryption, authentication, and anti-tampering. They also need to verify that these features work correctly and do not compromise the functionality or performance of the system.

3 Performance optimization

A third key trend for functional verification in emerging domains is the need to optimize the performance of the system, in terms of speed, power, bandwidth, latency, and reliability. Performance is a critical factor for delivering high-quality user experiences, enabling new applications and services, and gaining a competitive edge in the market. However, performance optimization also poses significant verification challenges, as it often involves trade-offs, constraints, and complex interactions between different components and layers of the system. To overcome these challenges, verification engineers need to use performance models and metrics, such as power-aware simulation, throughput analysis, and quality of service (QoS) verification. They also need to employ scalable and parallel verification platforms, such as emulation, FPGA prototyping, and cloud-based verification.

4 Domain-specific verification

A fourth key trend for functional verification in emerging domains is the emergence of domain-specific verification solutions, tailored to the specific needs and characteristics of each domain. For example, automotive verification requires addressing the challenges of heterogeneous architectures, mixed-signal interfaces, and functional safety. IoT verification requires dealing with the diversity of devices, protocols, and applications, as well as the constraints of low-power and low-cost design. 5G verification requires coping with the complexity of radio frequency (RF) and millimeter wave (mmWave) technologies, as well as the dynamic and variable network conditions. To address these domain-specific verification challenges, verification engineers need to use domain-specific verification languages, libraries, models, and methodologies, such as SystemVerilog for automotive, PSS for IoT, and RISC-V for 5G.

5 Verification automation

A fifth key trend for functional verification in emerging domains is the adoption of verification automation techniques, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP). These techniques aim to improve the efficiency, productivity, and quality of verification by automating some of the tedious, repetitive, or error-prone tasks, such as test generation, debug, coverage closure, and report generation. They also aim to enhance the intelligence, insight, and creativity of verification by providing new capabilities, such as anomaly detection, root cause analysis, design optimization, and verification planning. Verification automation is not only a trend, but also a necessity, as the complexity and scale of systems in emerging domains exceed the human capacity to verify them manually.

6 Verification collaboration

A sixth key trend for functional verification in emerging domains is the need for verification collaboration, both within and across organizations. Verification collaboration refers to the sharing of verification resources, data, and knowledge among different verification teams, stakeholders, and partners. It is essential for achieving faster time-to-market, higher quality, and lower cost, as well as for fostering innovation and learning. Verification collaboration also enables verification reuse, which is the ability to leverage existing verification assets, such as testbenches, test cases, models, and methodologies, for new or modified designs. To enable verification collaboration, verification engineers need to use common verification standards, formats, and tools, such as SystemVerilog, UVM, IP-XACT, and EDA platforms.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?