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Re: processor core validation

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Hi Tim,

Tim Wescott <tim@seemywebsite.com> wrote:
[]
>> We have the source code (vhdl) and a simulation environment to load
>> programs and execute them, but I'm not sure in this case code coeverage
>> will be sufficient. What about cases like interrupt handling?
[]
> Ooh!  What a good application for test driven design!  You're too late, 
> though.

Sure, taking a piece of stuff and wanting to validate it without 
thinking it verifiable from day one is certainly a big effort, but maybe 
less important than having to redesign it from scratch.

Instrumenting the code with appropriate 'test points' is certainly 
awkward but still doable.

> Testing software for quality assurance is like closing your eyes and 
> waving a butterfly net around -- if you find a bug, you know there was 
> one, but if you don't find a bug, you can't be sure there aren't a lot 
> out there still.

That's the very basic principle of verification, you cannot guarantee 
anything else except what you verified it working. Testing has it's own 
limits and that is why software development in hirel apps is not as 
straight forward as for commercial/industrial applications.

> I'd advocate for an app that's custom-designed for the core that makes 
> sure that every bit of the thing gets exercised.  This is going to mean a 
> lot of assembly code, and some of it oddball.

I believe this is only the trivial stuff, verifying instruction 
correctness should be not that complex. More critical would be interrupt 
handling according to code execution. Is the interrupt always served? 
Are there any specific instances where the interrupt can be masked by a 
certain combination of instructions in the pipeline?

Still I have more questions than answers at this point! :-/

Al

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processor core validation al.basili@gmail.com (alb) - 2015-02-08 22:02 +0000
  Re: processor core validation Tim Wescott <tim@seemywebsite.com> - 2015-02-08 18:13 -0600
    Re: processor core validation al.basili@gmail.com (alb) - 2015-02-09 17:03 +0000
      Re: processor core validation Tim Wescott <seemywebsite@myfooter.really> - 2015-02-09 13:37 -0600
        Re: processor core validation al.basili@gmail.com (alb) - 2015-02-11 22:12 +0000
          Re: processor core validation rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2015-02-11 20:18 -0500
            Re: processor core validation al.basili@gmail.com (alb) - 2015-02-12 08:08 +0000
  Re: processor core validation HT-Lab <hans64@htminuslab.com> - 2015-02-09 09:04 +0000
    Re: processor core validation Paul E Bennett <Paul_E.Bennett@topmail.co.uk> - 2015-02-09 09:41 +0000
      Re: processor core validation HT-Lab <hans64@htminuslab.com> - 2015-02-09 11:35 +0000
      Re: processor core validation Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2015-02-09 12:19 +0000
    Re: processor core validation al.basili@gmail.com (alb) - 2015-02-09 17:16 +0000

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