Specman
Encyclopedia
Specman is an EDA
tool, that provides advanced automated Functional verification of hardware designs. It provides an environment for working with, compiling, and debugging testbench environments written in the e
Hardware Verification Language
. Specman also offers automated testbench generation to boost productivity in the context of block, chip, and system verification.
The Specman tool itself does not include an HDL-simulation environment (such as VHDL or Verilog
.) To simulate an e-testbench with a design written in VHDL/Verilog, Specman must be run in conjunction with a separate HDL simulation tool. In principle, Specman can co-simulate with any HDL-simulator supporting standard PLI or VHPI interface, such as Cadence's NC-Sim
or Verilog-XL, Synopsys's VCS, or Mentor's ModelSim. But in practice, Specman is used almost exclusively with NC-Sim
, where tighter product integration with NC-Sim offers both faster runtime performance and debug capabilities not available with other HDL-simulators.
on April 7, 2005.
It is now part of the Cadence's functional verification suite, "Incisive" Enterprise Simulator", although Specman can still be licensed as a standalone product.
Electronic design automation
Electronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...
tool, that provides advanced automated Functional verification of hardware designs. It provides an environment for working with, compiling, and debugging testbench environments written in the e
E (verification language)
e is a hardware verification language which is tailored to implementing highly flexible and reusable verification testbenches.- History :...
Hardware Verification Language
Hardware verification language
A Hardware Verification Language, or HVL, is a programming language used to verify the designs of electronic circuits written in a hardware description language. HVLs typically include features of a high-level programming language like C++ or Java as well as features for easy bit-level...
. Specman also offers automated testbench generation to boost productivity in the context of block, chip, and system verification.
The Specman tool itself does not include an HDL-simulation environment (such as VHDL or Verilog
Verilog
In the semiconductor and electronic design industry, Verilog is a hardware description language used to model electronic systems. Verilog HDL, not to be confused with VHDL , is most commonly used in the design, verification, and implementation of digital logic chips at the register-transfer level...
.) To simulate an e-testbench with a design written in VHDL/Verilog, Specman must be run in conjunction with a separate HDL simulation tool. In principle, Specman can co-simulate with any HDL-simulator supporting standard PLI or VHPI interface, such as Cadence's NC-Sim
NCSim
Incisive is a suite of tools from Cadence Design Systems related to the design and verification of ASICs, SoCs, and FPGAs. Incisive is commonly referred to by the name NCSim in reference to the core simulation engine...
or Verilog-XL, Synopsys's VCS, or Mentor's ModelSim. But in practice, Specman is used almost exclusively with NC-Sim
NCSim
Incisive is a suite of tools from Cadence Design Systems related to the design and verification of ASICs, SoCs, and FPGAs. Incisive is commonly referred to by the name NCSim in reference to the core simulation engine...
, where tighter product integration with NC-Sim offers both faster runtime performance and debug capabilities not available with other HDL-simulators.
History
Specman was originally developed at Verisity, an Israel based company, which was acquired by CadenceCadence Design Systems
Cadence Design Systems, Inc is an electronic design automation software and engineering services company, founded in 1988 by the merger of SDA Systems and ECAD, Inc...
on April 7, 2005.
It is now part of the Cadence's functional verification suite, "Incisive" Enterprise Simulator", although Specman can still be licensed as a standalone product.
External links
You can find related articles in- The e language blog (Team Specman)
- http://www.asic-world.com/specman/
- http://www.specman-verification.com/
- http://www.cfs-vision.com/
- Editor Syntax Highlighting Modes