Xbox team uses SpringSoft's Verdi debug tool
Anne-Françoise PELE
EETimes
PARIS – Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox development team said it has licensed
SpringSoft's Verdi Automated Debug System to slash design time and
manage new levels of complexity in the latest generation of chips.
SpringSoft claimed that its Verdi system cuts debug time in half as it
automates behavior tracing with the company's Behavior Analysis
technology, extracts, isolates and displays logic in flexible and design
views as well as reveals the operation of and interaction between the
design, assertions and testbench.
Microsoft indicated that the Xbox team used the Verdi system on the
latest versions of its graphics (GPU) and microprocessor (CPU) chip
designs, which presented unprecedented verification challenges due to
the size and complexity of the ICs being developed. The verification
engineers responsible for validating functional correctness of the
design relied on the Verdi tool to automate error-finding tasks and
efficiently compare design revisions.
With the Verdi system, the Microsoft Xbox team said they could trace
designs hierarchically through the RTL description. And, even when
working with unfamiliar design elements developed by other parts of the
team, the verification engineers claimed that they could quickly
comprehend complex relationships and interactions within the design code
and find sources of errors.
"The Verdi tool probably cut our debug time in half on the complex
portions of our most recent designs. Its automated features to trace
through and compare designs were invaluable, in one case eliminating an
entire ECO loop for us," stated Nguyen Le, a senior verification
engineer in the XBOX Group at Microsoft. "The process of tracking down
problems such as event ordering issues used to be open-ended, but with
Verdi we are able to quickly pinpoint errors and correct them."
