Research Of The Functional Verification Of A Kind Of Accelerated Graphics System-on-a-chip

As a result of the development of semiconductor technics and IC design technique, Accelerated Graphics System(AGS) changes from MCU/LCD controller based architecture to SoC based architecture. Traditonal functional verification for AGS is actually that for LCD controller, which can't satisfy the demand for Accelerated Graphics Card(AGC) verification, whose design has more size and difficulty. AGC will process large amount of data, so it will be infeasible to use traditional verification method to simulate the design because of its intolerant simulating speed. Otherwise FPGA prototype based method is not well enough control and visibility. So a method that has faster speed and good control and visibility can improve the design efficiency and quality, and can shorten the design cycle.With the analysis about the situation of SoC functional verification, and considering the verification efficiency, verification quality, transplant and reuse, this paper proposed a suit of functional verification method for AGS. Verification is performed in different stages of the design, and on different level, including module level, sub-system level and system level. During each stage of the design, testbenches are established according to the character of the design. We can perform the verification on system level using logic simulator, and also using the Accelerated Simulating based method during late period, which accelerates the simulating speed and has good control and visibility. The suit of method and material testbenches is typical and universal. It can be easily used in verification for other AGS. In addition, many modules are implemented, and has good capability of transplant and reuse.In order to ensure that the suit of method is feasible and efficiency, this paper implement the material testbench aiming at a material AGD design, and perform the functional verification. The result shows that, this suit of method improves the design quality, shorten the design period, which can perform the verification very well.