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http://blogs.mentor.com/verificationhorizons/

Tech-No!: Verification Methodologies and Design Patterns: Singleton Pattern

Definition/Intent: Ensure a class only has one instance, and provide a global point of access to it. It is a creational pattern.

Participants & Implementation:

Singleton:

– is responsible for creating and storing its own unique instance

– defines an Instance operation that lets clients access its unique instance

The “class level” Instance operation will either return or create and return the sole instance; a “class level” attribute will contain either a default indicating there is no instance yet or the sole instance

Applicability:

– There must be exactly one instance of a class, and it must be accessible to clients from a well-known access point.

– When the sole instance should be extensible by subclassing, and clients should be able to use an extended instance without modifying their code.

Benefits:

– Controlled access to sole instance

– Permits a variable number of instances

Usage in OVM:

· OVM_TOP – instance of ovm_root. Only one instance of ovm_top

· OVM Factory - only one instance of ovm_factory

References:

i. http://sourcemaking.com/

ii. http://www.oodesign.com

iii. http://home.gwu.edu/~blankeng/Classes/CSCI253/Class%20page%20(spring%202007).htm

vi. http://www.dofactory.com/Default.aspx

Tech-No!: Clock Dividers

Here is a good article for Clock Dividers:

"Clock Dividers Made Easy" - (SNUG Boston 2002 paper)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6868408/Clock-Dividers

"Unusual Clock Dividers" - (Xilinx article)

http://www.nalanda.nitc.ac.in/industry/appnotes/xilinx/documents/xcell/xl33/xl33_30.pdf

Tech-No!: Clock Gating

Here is an article on Clock Gating basics. This is a SNUG2000 article.

"Power Reduction Through RTL Clock Gating"

http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~vagrawal/COURSE/E6270_Fall07/PROJECT/LUO/snug2000.pdf

Tech-No!: Clock Muxing

Here is a good article that talks about various glitch free clock muxing techniques.

"Techniques to make clock switching glitch free"

http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20030626S0035

Tech-No!: Verification Methodologies and Design Patterns: A Preview

Ever since I worked on my first project in the industry, a simple Vera based verification environment, I have been thinking about the possible usage of Design Patterns in ASIC/SoC Verification. After all these years, I have managed to get a better understanding of this topic. I have worked on various Verification Methodologies and have identified a few design patterns in these methodologies.

In this series, I will target one design pattern in each post and hope to have a series of articles covering this topic. I will start with the usage of Singleton Pattern in OVM.

Tech-No!: The Ideal World of Verification

Ever wondered how an ideal world of verification would look like? I would probably see one when the following criteria are met.

• Infinite Budget
• No Deadlines or time limit
• Infinite resources, consisting of verification experts
• An amazing specification which captures every possible detail of the design and frozen
• A client or architect not making any change requests
• An amazing EDA tool which supports every possible feature
• A very high end machine grid to run your jobs

So what else would one need in this ideal world? Given that these are met how would your verification environment look like?

Tech-No!: Clock Domain Crossing (CDC)

1) Understanding Clock Domain Crossing Issues:
The following link describes the basics of Clock Domain Crossing (CDC) and its 3 main issues namely: A) Metastability, B) Data Loss & C) Data Incoherency and the solutions to these issues.
http://www.edadesignline.com/howto/205201913;jsessionid=TR5Q53DPD0BRSQSNDLRSKHSCJUNN2JVN

Tech-No!: Birth of the technical section of my blog

Being a techie, I read alot of technical stuff which I generally bookmark for later references. Managing these bookmarks has been an ardous task. So I wanted to categorize and start a new section in my blog on the lines of Sports Gully, the sports section of my blog. This allows me to easily categorize and review my posts. The new category would be called Tech-No!.

Sports Gully - Back After a Long Hiatus

5 Things I Think:

1) MS Dhoni is the captain with the Midas touch. People tend to appreciate everything you do when you are winning. Any stupid thing decision you make on the field is either applauded or pushed aside saying "He is being different". Dhoni should consult Ponting in this regard, he is sitting on the other side of the fence.

2) I have just realized that I'm absolutely crazy about American Football! It's off season now but I'm still combing the sports websites for NFL news. My neighbour at work things I'm crazy!

3) India still needs a Fast/Medium pace all-rounder. That is the missing piece for India becoming a team to beat. Irfan Pathan, you are on notice, there is a spot and it is yours for taking. You know what you have to work on.

4) The Bangalore Royal Challengers have made a huge mistake in have two different captains for IPL 2. You need quality leadership to win championships, just ask the previous World Cup Winners (most of the underdogs SriLankans (1996) and Pakistan (1992))

5) Eagerly waiting for the NBA playoff's to start. That's when the real NBA seasons starts.

Important Inventions of the Next 10 Years

Being part of an Innovation task force at work has rekindled the thought of innovation in after a long hiatus. So it is apt that I start blogging again with something related to innovation. Were in the middle (I hope) of a down turn and constant layoff jokes here is an article from Business Week which has soemthing to look forward to.

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/02/0225_inventions/1.htm