How to Use SystemVerilog Assertions for Effective Verification
SystemVerilog Assertions (SVA) are a powerful tool for verifying complex designs and ensuring their correctness. SVA allows you to specify properties and constraints that the design should satisfy, and check them at runtime using formal or simulation methods. SVA can help you detect bugs, improve coverage, and reduce verification effort.
However, learning and applying SVA can be challenging, especially for beginners. There are many syntax rules, features, and best practices to master. How do you write clear and concise assertions? How do you debug and optimize them? How do you use them in a verification strategy?
The Art of Verification with SystemVerilog Assertions.rarbfdcm
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Fortunately, there is a book that can help you answer these questions and more: The Art of Verification with SystemVerilog Assertions by Faisal Haque, Jonathan Michelson, and Khizar Khan[^1^] [^2^]. This book covers all aspects of SVA with numerous, detailed examples. It teaches the SVA language by explaining its usage in the context of practical verification issues. It also shows how SVA can be used to develop an effective, assertion-based verification strategy for an OCP cache.
In this article, we will give you a brief overview of some of the topics covered in the book, such as:
The basics of SVA syntax and semantics
The different types of assertions and their applications
The use of temporal operators and sequences
The use of local variables and functions
The use of concurrent assertions and immediate assertions
The use of assertion directives and system tasks
The use of assertion coverage and debug tools
The use of SVA in a verification methodology
We hope that this article will spark your interest in learning more about SVA and how it can improve your verification skills. If you want to dive deeper into the subject, we highly recommend reading The Art of Verification with SystemVerilog Assertions, which is available for purchase online[^1^] [^2^]. You can also download a sample chapter from the book's website[^3^].The Basics of SVA Syntax and Semantics
Before we write any assertions, we need to understand the basic syntax and semantics of SVA. SVA is a language construct that is embedded within SystemVerilog, but it has its own rules and features that are different from SystemVerilog. In fact, SVA is one of the three orthogonal languages that make up SystemVerilog, along with SystemVerilog Functional Coverage (SFC) and SystemVerilog itself[^3^].
SVA consists of two main components: properties and assertions. A property is a logical expression that describes a temporal behavior or a relationship between signals in the design. An assertion is a statement that checks whether a property holds true or not. Assertions can be either immediate or concurrent, depending on how they are evaluated.
Immediate assertions are simple if statements that do not depend on a clock or a reset. They are evaluated at every simulation time step and report an error if the expression within the assert keyword evaluates to false. For example:
immediate_assertion_name: // assertion name
assert (current_state != 0) // expression to be checked
else // (optional) custom error message
$error ( \"%m checker failed\" );
Concurrent assertions are more complex expressions that span multiple clock cycles and are triggered relative to a clock edge. They use the property keyword to define the temporal behavior or relationship to be checked, and the assert property statement to check it. For example:
// Format 1 - Inline expression
concurrent_assertion_name: // assertion label
assert property ( @ ( posedge clk) disable iff (rst) // sampling event
req -> ## 3 gnt // expression to check
)
else // (optional) error message
$error ( \"%m no grant after request\" );
// Format 2 - Separate property block
property ConcurrentPropName;
@ ( posedge clk) disable iff (rst)
req -> ## 3 gnt;
endproperty
AssertionName: assert property (ConcurrentPropName);
In both formats, the expression to be checked is composed of signals and operators that specify the temporal logic. The most common operators are implication (->), sequence concatenation (##), and repetition (*). We will explain these operators in more detail later.
The sampling event specifies when the assertion should be evaluated. It is usually a clock edge, but it can also be any signal change. The disable iff clause specifies a condition that disables the assertion evaluation, such as a reset signal.
The error message is optional, but it can be useful to provide more information about the assertion failure. The %m specifier prints the hierarchical name of the assertion. 29c81ba772
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