A Framework for Automated Testing of RTL Designs

This paper describes a novel testing framework for RTL Designs. The framework emphasizes effectiveness of automated black box testing of RTL Designs. The proposed test framework requires minimum human intervention and test cases can be executed with a single click. For extensively generic based testbench, our test framework can be made highly configurable. We can easily integrate any RTL design and its testbench in the proposed test framework. The crux of the proposed test framework is a Python script which interacts with the design entry tool and simulator to execute the testcases as per the configuration. The examples illustrated in this paper use HDL Designer as a design entry tool and Model Sim as a simulator. The paper then details design and implementation of a fully automated testbench. Successful results obtained by using this framework for two industrial projects are elaborated. This test framework also includes metrics to estimate the comprehensive code coverage.