Why OSVVM™?

Verification capability is largely a matter of programming. VHDL is a capable programming language. Like SystemVerilog, writing directly in VHDL is tedious and potentially error prone. Open Source VHDL Verification Methodology™ (OSVVM™) is VHDL’s answer to SystemVerilog’s UVM.

OSVVM is an advanced verification methodology that defines a VHDL verification framework, verification utility library, verification component library, scripting API, and co-simulation capability that simplifies your FPGA or ASIC verification project from start to finish. Using these libraries, you can create a simple, readable, and powerful testbench that is suitable for either a simple FPGA block or a complex ASIC.

OSVVM supports the same capabilities that other verification languages support – from transaction level modeling, to functional coverage and randomized test generation, to data structures, and to basic utilities. The intention of OSVVM goes beyond capability though – OSVVM intends to make verification environments easy, readable, and fun.

Capabilities of OSVVM

OSVVM is developed by the same VHDL experts who have helped develop VHDL standards. We have used our expert VHDL skills to create advanced verification capabilities that provide:

A structured transaction-based framework using verification components that is suitable for all verification tasks – from Unit/RTL to full chip/system level testing.
A Model Independent Transaction (MIT) library that defines a transaction API (procedures such as read, write, send, get, …) and transaction interface (a record) that simplifies writing verification components and test cases.
Test cases and verification components that can be written any VHDL Engineer.
Test cases that are readable and reviewable by the whole team including software and system engineers.
Unmatched reuse through the entire verification process.
Unmatched test reporting with HTML based test suite reports, test case reports, and logs that facilitate debug and test artifact collection.
Support for continuous integration (CI/CD) with JUnit XML test suite reporting.
Powerful and concise verification capabilities including Constrained Random, Functional Coverage, Scoreboards, FIFOs, Memory Models, error logging and reporting, and message filtering that are simple to use and work like built-in language features.
A common scripting API to run all simulators – including GHDL, NVC, Aldec Riviera-PRO and ActiveHDL, Siemens Questa and ModelSim, Synopsys VCS, and Cadence Xcelium.
A Co-simulation capability that supports running software (C++) in a hardware simulation environment.
A rival to the verification capabilities of SystemVerilog + UVM.

Looking to improve your VHDL verification methodology? OSVVM provides a complete solution for VHDL ASIC or FPGA verification. There is no new language to learn. It is simple, powerful, and concise. Each piece can be used separately. Hence, you can learn and adopt pieces as you need them.

OSVVM Benefits

OSVVM demonstrates that you can have capability, simplicity, readability, and conciseness all from one language and methodology.

In OSVVM we code our verification components using familiar entities and architectures. Hence, the coding of these models can be either behavioral or RTL-like. With OSVVM, both test cases and verification components can be written by any VHDL engineer.

All OSVVM features are created in the free, open-source library. No special licensing beyond a VHDL simulator that supports VHDL-2008.

OSVVM Simulator Support

OSVVM is supported on Aldec’s Riviera-PRO and Active-HDL, Siemen’s QuestaSim and ModelSim, Synopsys VCS, Cadence Xcelium, GHDL (open source), and NVC (open source) simulators.