SystemVerilog Errata

SystemVerilog for Verification, Third Edition, Errata

Thank you to everyone who has sent me the mistakes they found in my book, SystemVerilog for Verification, third edition. Like a hardware project, the book has "bugs". Both hardware and books should be verified by someone other than the person who created it. Now if I can only figure out how to perform constrained random testing of text...

This page will show any functional mistakes in the THIRD EDITION of the book. Code that does not work, explanations that are incorrect, etc. Simple typos and bad English are not included.

Chapter 1 Verification Guidelines

• Page 9 section 1.7, second line
  These values are the easiest to create - just call $random().

Chapter 2 Data Types

• Page 33
  These dimensions can be specified in the [msb:lsb] format, or [size].
• Page 36
  Sample 2.21, the last comment is incorrect and should be:
  // Initialize the elements. d[3][1] = 31;
• Page 37 (shortened last sentence)
  As a shortcut, a $, as in [1:$], stands for the maximum value, [1:2], in first line of the initial block of Sample 2.23.
• Page 43, Sample 2.32: must cast the width of the boolean expressions.
  count = d.sum(x) with (32'(x > 7));    //  2=sum{1,0,1,0,0,0}
  count = d.sum(x) with ((x > 7) * x);   // 17=sum{9,0,8,0,0,0}
  count = d.sum(x) with (32'(x < 8));    //  4=sum{0,1,0,1,1,1}
  count = d.sum(x) with (x < 8 ? x : 0); // 12=sum{0,1,0,3,4,4}
  count = d.sum(x) with (32'(x == 4));   //  2=sum{0,0,0,0,1,1}
  
• Page 47, section 2.7.4
  SystemVerilog can not sort associative arrays.
• Page 54, Sample 2.49, 8th line
  $display("Timeout - %s", message);
• Page 60, Sample 2.60, 3rd from last line
  c2 = color_e'(c); // No type checking
• Page 64, Exercise 2.g
  g. my_logic = my_logicmem[my_logicmem[4]];

Chapter 3 Procedural Statements and Routines

• Page 74
  The ^= compound statement in Sample 3.11 ...
• Page 75, Sample 3.12, 9th line
  @(posedge bus_enable) data = bus_data;
• Page 79, above Sample 3-22
  The alternative is to pass the array by reference.

Chapter 4 Connecting the Testbench and Design

• Page 90, Sample 4.3, add a declaration for rst:
  logic rst;
  
• Page 92, Sample 4.6, change compare operator here and throughout the chapter:
  if (arbif.grant !== 2'b01)
  
• Page 116, Sample 4.37, change compare operator:
  if (arbif.cb.grant !== 2'b01)
  

Chapter 5 Basic Object Oriented Programming

• Page 153, after Sample 5.25, all references to handle "t" should be "tr"
  However, if transmit tries to modify the handle, the result won't be seen in the initial block, as the tr argument was not declared as ref.
  As shown above, transmit can modify data[0] in the object without changing the value of tr.

Chapter 6 Randomization

• Page 172, Section 6.2.6, last paragraph, remove extra "and hold"
  Your constrained random testbench should not purposefully setup and hold requirements.
• Page 180, Sample 6.12 should be
  f inside {vals};
  
• Page 180, Sample 6.14 should be
  !(notf inside {vals});
  
• Page 181, Sample 6.17 should be
  constraint cday {choice inside {choices});
  
• Page 184, Sample 6.22 is missing endclass
  
• Page 185, Sample 6.24 and 6.25 are missing endclass
  
• Page 186, Sample 6.26 is missing endclass
  
• Page 188, Table 6-5 shows the wrong probablities. All should be 1/5, not 1/2.
  
• Page 189, Sample 6.31 is easier to read with parentheses
  (x==0) -> (y==0) ;
• Page 194, last line.
  See Sample 6.65 for another example of post_randomize.
• Page 199-200, samples 6.41 and 6.42.
  See Sample 6.65 for another example of post_randomize.
• Page 204, Sample 6.49, line 3.
  constraint c_set_four { strobe.sum() with (int'(item)) == 4; }

Chapter 7 Threads and Interprocess Communication

• Page 243, Sample 7.19, add the following comment
  // Task must be in a class or an automatic program or module

Chapter 8 Advanced Object Oriented Programming and Testbench Guidelines

• Page 276, Sample 8.2 is missing endclass.
  
• Page 293, last paragraph. The 2012 LRM states that in an extended class, teh return type of a virtual function shall be either a matching type or the the derived class type. So the BadTr::copy() method could return a BadTr handle. In reality, few people and no methodologies use this language feature.
• Page 304, Sample 8.34
  class Generator #(type T=BaseTr);
  mailbox #(T) gen2drv;
  T blueprint; // Blueprint object
  
  function new(input mailbox #(T) gen2drv);
  
• Page 310, Sample 8.44, starting at line 17
  config_db#(Tiny)::set("Null", null); // Test null handles
  
  config_db#(int)::get("i", k); // Fetch an int
  $display("fetched value (%0d) of i (%0d) ", k, i);
  
• Page 315, Sample 8.51, remove the second line with m_children as it is not needed.
• Page 315, Sample 8.52, line 3, add default argument value
  pure virtual function svm_object create_object(string name="");
  

Chapter 9 Functional Coverage

• Page 337, Sample 9.8, need to construct the coverage object.
  CovDst8 covdst;
  function new();
    covdst = new();
  endfunction
  
• Page 339, Section 9.7.2
  You can also explicitly define bins as shown in Section 9.7.5.
• Page 339, Section 9.7.3, second paragraph
  ... explicitly define bins as shown in Section 9.7.5.
• Page 346, Section 9.7.11, first paragraph
  ... explicitly define bins that you want to cover as shown in Section 9.7.5.
• Page 346, Section 9.7.11, last line
  bins, which is 6 in this case.

Chapter 10 Advanced Interfaces

• Page 368, Sample 10.7, first line
  typedef virtual Tx_if.TB vTx_t;
• Page 369, Sample 10.7, second line
  while (Tx.cb.en !== 0) // Wait for enable deassert

Chapter 11 A Complete SystemVerilog Testbench

• Page 413, Sample 11.27, method pre_tx argument list is wrong
  virtual task pre_tx(input Driver drv,
          input UNI_cell cell,
          inout bit drop);

Chapter 12 Interfacing with C

• Page 419, second paragraph
  The LRM limits imported functions results to "small values".
• Page 419, Sample 12.6
  initial $display("fabs(-1.0)=%f", fabs(-1.0));
• Page 434, Sample 12.22, first line
  import "DPI-C" function void fib_oa(inout bit [31:0] data[]);
• Page 434, Sample 12.22, eighth line, remove the second argument
    fib_oa(data);
• Page 434, Sample 12.23, first line
  void fib_oa(const svOpenArrayHandle data_oa, const int size) {
• Page 450
  Use the routine svGetScope to get a handle to the current scope, and then use that handle in a call to svSetScope to make the C code think it is inside another context.
• Page 451, Sample 12.50
  C: c_display called from scope top.b1
  C: calling top.b1.sv_display
  SV: In top.b1.sv_display
  
  C: c_display called from scope top
  C: calling top.b1.sv_display
  SV: In top.b1.sv_display
  
• Page 453:
  > simv +script="perl hello.pl"

Index

• Page 460
  Find_index method, 43-45, 300
  

Credits