Why I Like UVM Express

This week Mentor released an extension to UVM called UVM Express. Normally, when someone announces an extension to the UVM, it involves more code or more tools. Not so in this case. With the library passing 67,000 lines of code (can that be right??), Mentor isn’t just piling on more code. UVM Express is an “extension” that helps people use what’s already there.

Here’s a few excerpts from the UVM Express page on Mentor’s verification academy with some additional commentary:

The UVM Express is a collection of techniques, coding styles and UVM usages that are designed to increase the productivity of functional verification. The techniques include raising the abstraction level of tests, writing tests using BFM function and task calls, adding functional coverage, and adding constrained-random stimulus generation.

Seasoned (aka: skeptical) verification engineers that have seen their share of new product announcements promising “increased productivity in functional verification” and suggesting “raising the level of abstraction” might be tapping the back button by this point but I’d encourage those skeptics to read on. I think the “revelations” appear in the next few sentences. Continue reading