Sonics OCP Library for Verification (SOLV) is a package of three components designed to enable debugging, performance tuning and validation of complex intellectual property (IP) cores using OCP interfaces. This suite of tools enables core designers to validate their OCP socket interfaces and maximize performance.

The first component in the SOLV package is the Sonics SVA OCP Checker.  It validates OCP sockets for protocol compliance during simulation and generates OCP trace files for use by post-processing tools. The checker captures values of OCP signals at each OCP clock cycle and compares them to OCP protocol requirements as defined within the official OCP specification.  This tool enables users to quickly and efficiently identify OCP protocol violations within individual sockets thereby reducing debug and validation workloads.

The second tool within the SOLV package is the OCP Disassembler (OCPDis2).  OCPDis2 is a command line tool that allows for the display of OCP connection activity in a convenient report format. During simulation, OCP connection activity can be logged into an OCP trace file. These trace files are essentially tables of hexadecimal values until OCPDis2 disassembles them into human readable data.

The OCP Performance Analyzer (OCPPerf2), the third component of the SOLV package, is a command line tool that processes OCP trace files to measure the performance of OCP transfers and burst transactions. OCPPerf2 can process and interpret OCP trace files, making them useful for determining performance results within an OCP socket.  Using this knowledge, a designer can individually tune OCP socket performance to optimal levels for any given application.

What is SOLV?
·  Sonics OCP Library for Verification (SOLV) is a package of three components designed to enable debugging, performance tuning and validation of complex intellectual property (IP) cores using OCP interfaces.  This suite of tools enables core designers to validate their OCP socket interfaces and maximize performance.
·  SOLV consists of…
o SVA OCP Checker: The SVA OCP Checker validates OCP sockets for protocol compliance during simulation and generates OCP trace files for use by post-processing tools built using SystemVerilog Assertions.  The SVA OCP Checker is a fourth generation protocol checker solution based upon over a decade of production experience by Sonics and its customers in completing OCP-based designs. The compliance check chapters in the OCP Specification were largely derived from the SVA OCP Checker, reflecting its historical status as the “gold standard” of OCP protocol compliance.
o OCP Disassembler (ocpdis2): ocpdis2 is a command line tool that allows for the display of OCP transactions in several convenient report formats that are also easily understood by user analysis scripts. These reports help designers visualize both the large number of signal groups and wide configurability of OCP concisely, without resorting to complex waveform views.
o OCP Performance Analyzer (ocpperf2): ocpperf2 is a command line tool that processes OCP trace files to produce a detailed breakdown of the bandwidth and latency characteristics of the OCP transfers and burst transactions that were monitored during a simulation.

Why would a customer use SOLV?
·  SOLV helps designers identify and isolate both functional and performance defects in their OCP-based designs, thereby reducing total verification time and costs while improving overall design quality. Sonics has delivered the SOLV tools to customers for more than a decade as part of the verification tooling for its highly configurable OCP-based IP cores.  Over that time period, the tools have developed into a “must-have” for Sonics’ internal use, and have helped Sonics’ customers develop many dozens of SoCs that have shipped in cumulative volumes of well over 250 million devices.

How much does SOLV cost?
·  Sonics offers a variety of pricing tiers for SOLV based on the number of seats required.  Please contact a Sonics sales representative for details (sales@sonicsinc.com).

How is SOLV licensed?
·  The product is licensed with a run time key.   Each concurrent simulation will consume one key although the SVA OCP Checker may be instantiated multiple times.  The number of available license keys will allow the same number of concurrent simulations.

But, isn’t SOLV available for free from OCP-IP?
·  Three (3) concurrent run-time licenses of SOLV (a component of the CoreCreator® II package) are available for no-charge to paying member companies of OCP-IP in good standing as part of their subscription benefits.  Members entitled to the licenses are Governing Steering Committee, Sponsor and Community members as well as University members participating through OCP-IP’s University Program. If more than 3 licenses are needed, contact a Sonics sales representative (sales@sonicsinc.com) for details on additional license pricing.

How does this differ from the SOLV deliverable that is part of the CoreCreator II package that I can get from OCP-IP?
·  There are no differences in the product functionality.  OCP-IP members are provided three (3) concurrent runtime licenses of SOLV upon request.  If more than 3 licenses are required, please contact a Sonics sales representative (sales@sonicsinc.com).

Isn’t SOLV the same as Synopsys® DesignWare® Verification Intellectual Property (VIP) which is also provided as part of OCP-IP CoreCreator II?
·  No, …
o CoreCreator II comprises two components: SOLV, licensed and delivered by Sonics; and DesignWare VIP, licensed and delivered by Synopsys
o Synopsys offers DesignWare VIP that drives and reacts to stimulus, while SOLV does not drive or react to stimulus but instead checks the legality of the stimulus.  In that way, SOLV is complementary to the DesignWare VIP offering, adding protocol checking and additional analysis and debug capabilities
o The Synopsys DesignWare VIP offering was actually validated using SOLV.

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