Important Disclaimer The project development described here represents the experience of 74ze Engineering's team members before the creation and incorporation of 74ze Engineering, Inc.

Networking Switch ASIC verification

CLIENT

A multinational networking and telecommunications company with revenues of over one billion dollars

CHALLENGE

To verify three high-performance multi-protocol network processor designs at the RTL stage. The designs, of 2-3 million gates each, were: a forwarding engine based on the OC48 standard, a general queue manager based on the OC48 standard, and a combined forwarding and queuing engine based on the OC192 standard. Verification incorporated the following protocols: PCI/PCI-X, CSIX, FFE, SPI3, SPI4, UTOPIA-IV, Ethernet, ATM, AAL5, and ATM over MPLS.

SOLUTION

• Formed an eight-person remote-site co-verification team
• Refined test strategy with client and developed test plan for the feature list
• Architected and created an object-oriented, script-based verification environment using Vera, Verilog, Perl, and makefiles. Environment included data generators, protocol monitors, and performance and statistical analyzers
• Developed behavioral models of an OIF SPI4.2, a high speed ASIC-to-ASIC bus (UTOPIA-3 like), an Rx/Tx block and other devices. Worked with PCI and PCI-X slave models
• Performed functional verification with directed and directed-random testcases using Vera, Verilog, 0-In, and SureFire
• Developed a tool and tests for performance measurement of the main datapath
• Assisted in debugging and rewrote some parts of the RTL code
• Performed coverage analysis and managed regression testing

BENEFIT

Over the course of this 30 month relationship, three complex multi-protocol routing switches were verified. These ASICs were fabricated and successfully released in products. The client lowered its budget with an expandable staff which grew from four to eight and reached thirteen during a peak period. More importantly, by utilizing the technical expertise of 74ze's engineers, their three ASICs were right the first time.