Overview

IC Verification Assistant links the semiconductor verification process with ALM for the people within the organization that need to put the overall process in place to trace verification results to design requirements.

Note:

You must have the ICVA extension installed and an ICVA license to access this feature

This process is normally most important to groups that need to be in compliance with safety standards such as ISO26262 or DO-254, but customers that simply want better control and visibility of their process based on design requirements will also be interested. Typical users within the organization would be semiconductor verification managers or leads but also CAD managers responsible for verification flows as well as Verification Teams that are looking to improve their overall process by enabling the ability to trace verification results to requirements managed within an ALM flow.

Questa Verification Management provides the verification team a plan-driven methodology. This means that it’s possible to capture a Test or Verification plan in a document that has information to reference coverage results from the verification engines such as QuestaSim simulation, static Formal and Veloce emulation. There are then analysis tools that will present the results based on the Test Plan to help guide the process towards completion. Any link from the Design Specification and the Test Plan must be managed by the verification team.

The solution provides a complete Requirements Driven Verification flow within an ALM solution. This means that the user can take advantage of ALM functionality for the semiconductor flow, for example, Requirements capture, traceability, reporting, workflows and collaborative management.

The Verification process requires:

  • Traceability from Design Requirements to Verification Requirements or Test Plans.

  • Traceability from Verification Requirements to coverage results.

  • Collaborative management of requirements and test results.

  • Reporting to prove the live status of the project to show compliance with safety standards such as ISO26262 or DO-254.

Install and Configure IC Verification Assistant

  1. Install Polarion.

  2. Install the ICVA extension.

  3. Install the ICVA widgets.

  4. Upload the ICVA template.

  5. Apply your ICVA license.

The IC Verification Assistant Workflow

  1. Create a Project in Polarion with the ICVA template.

  2. (Optional) Customize the ICVA xml configuration file.

  3. (Optional) Create a Design Specification. (A LiveDoc requirements document.)

    These requirements are called Design Requirements and they're linked to Verification Requirements.

  4. Create a Test Plan. (Includes the Verification Requirement Work Items.)

    Note:

    Currently, the import of an existing Test Plan with linked Coverage Items is not supported.

  5. (Optional) Upload a Coverage Model.

  6. One or both of the following:

    1. Link Coverage Items to Verification Requirements.

    2. Link custom Coverage Items.

  7. Export the Test Plan to the UCDB format.

  8. Merge the Test Plan with the Questa Coverage results. (Creates a merged UCDB file.)

  9. Import Coverage Results. Will create Regression Results (Test Run).

    (You can use the Regression Results template.)

  10. View the Traceability Report and Summary Verification Report to gauge how the verification process is progressing.