UVM Based on OVM 2.1.1: What a Great Idea!

Regular readers know that I have been urging the Accellera VIP TSC to base its Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) on the OVM 2.1 release rather than on OVM 2.0.3 as voted back in December. A few readers took me to task for my shameless advocacy, suggesting that I shut up and "let the committee do its job" in a technical world unsullied by Marketing considerations. In response, I argued that successful standards have both technical and practical aspects. In particular, it doesn't make sense to reinvent UVM versions of technical solutions already delivered and widely used in the OVM community.

I am pleased to hear from committee members that the TSC has officially voted to base the UVM on OVM 2.1.1, even better than 2.1 since this picks up a few small improvements to the library. I'm glad that the Accellera folks made the right decision here; it means that current OVM users will have a smooth transition to the UVM and that new users will have access to such well-established OVM features as callbacks and objections in the very first UVM release. I eagerly anticipate this release within a matter of weeks since it will mark the official standardization of the OVM.

So "UVM=OVM" remains essentially true but the TSC is embarking on the important and healthy process of adding new technology beyond the OVM so that "UVM>OVM" as the standard evolves. As I've noted before, the Community Contributions area on OVM World has lots of wonderful technology not in OVM 2.1.1 that should be considered for future UVM releases. Other TSC members will have enhancement ideas too, such as the "message catching" feature likely to be included in the intial UVM release.

I've also been advocating that the UVM be 100% compatible with the OVM and my Cadence colleagues have been taking the lead in the TSC to ensure a high degree of compatibility and therefore an easy path to the standard for current OVM users. Furthermore, current VMM users will be able to link to the UVM via the interoperability solution established by Accellera last year. The bottom line is that I am a lot less concerned about the UVM than I was a few months ago. We seem to be very close to a technically sound and immediately usable Accellera standard.

Tom A.

The truth is out there...sometimes it's in a blog.