Synopsys has dubbed the open-source version OpenVera and has launched the Vera Open Source Initiative for third-party vendors. The company claims these moves are potentially as significant as Cadence Design Systems Inc.'s decision to open Verilog, an event that helped bring hardware-description languages into the mainstream.

"It became clear to us that the market for [verification] HDLs is going to remain restricted until there's an open language," said Rich Goldman, vice president of strategic-market development at Synopsys (Mountain View, Calif.). "We expect that vendors will build tools around [OpenVera], customers will be more comfortable using it and the market will explode."

The move drew accolades from Janick Bergeron, vice president at Qualis Design Corp. (Lake Oswego, Ore.) and moderator of the Verification Guild, an e-mail discussion group. "A lot of people have been refraining from using HVLs [hardware-verification languages] because people view them as proprietary," Bergeron said. "This is a significant move that will remove one of the big objections customers have, and foster the development of an ecosystem of tools around the language."

Many types of verification tools could potentially use Vera, including code-coverage utilities, debuggers, formal verifiers, assertion checkers and hardware accelerators. Opening Vera makes it possible for third-party vendors to provide such support.

OpenVera has drawn an impressive list of third-party endorsements, but it's unknown how many of these companies will actually support OpenVera with their products. Meanwhile, the newly public Verisity is opting for a different approach by setting up licensing and partnership programs rather than taking the open-source route.

"We've been focusing more on things that are real, rather than throwing a language out there and getting a lot of endorsements from companies that are not actually going to do anything beyond a public relations opportunity," said Francine Ferguson, vice president of worldwide marketing at Verisity Design Inc. (Mountain View).

Verisity today appears to have a longer list than Synopsys of companies publicly working on support for "e," including Cadence Design Systems and Mentor Graphics Corp., which have not endorsed OpenVera. Verisity is also working actively with standards bodies such as Accellera and the Virtual Socket Interface Alliance, while Synopsys is taking more of a go-it-alone approach.

Faster route

Synopsys, however, has enjoyed success with previous open-source licensing efforts, including those for its Liberty library format and Synopsys Design Constraint format. The company contends that the open-source route is faster and less politicized than going through established standards bodies.

Just setting up a licensing program doesn't provide enough access, Synopsys' Goldman said. "We think people want a language that's openly available and can be downloaded over the Web, with no control over who licenses it."

That's what Synopsys promises with OpenVera. Starting Monday, a language reference manual (LRM) can be downloaded from the OpenVera Web site. Goldman said anyone can license it, even Synopsys' direct competitors, with no field-of-use restrictions and no licensing fees. Licensees get full patent rights to the language.

Cadence argues that OpenVera is not a true open-source solution. "They're not providing source code, just the LRM and patents and licenses," said Mike O'Reilly, group marketing manager for advanced verification products at Cadence (San Jose, Calif.). Cadence, in contrast, is providing source code for its open-source TestBuilder C++ verification class library, O'Reilly said.

The Vera user community can suggest changes to the language, but Synopsys will act as "gatekeeper" for any future updates. Synopsys is not currently planning to spin out the OpenVera effort into a separate organization, as it has with SystemC.

Vera, like Verisity's "e," is a specialized language that lets users build testbenches at a higher level of abstraction than Verilog or VHDL. This object-oriented language supports complex data structures, has built-in data types aimed at verification and lets users model the execution of events in time.

Vera claims to have significant market share, and the most recent Gartner Dataquest report backs up that point, showing Synopsys with 54 percent of the electronic system-level (ESL) verification market in 1999. But Gary Smith, chief EDA analyst at Gartner Dataquest, said that Vera hasn't yet won the ESL testbench language war.

"I think [OpenVera] is a necessary move, but we'll have to wait and see if it's significant," Smith said. "We're in the middle of choosing the ESL testbench language and it has become evident that the user community will not accept a proprietary language."

In addition to Verisity's "e," Cadence has fielded TestBuilder, and the Superlog language is now taking aim at verification, Smith noted. The Cynlib C++ class library is also increasingly homing in on testbench generation, and some are even considering SystemC.

Third-party encouragement

The real purpose of OpenVera is to encourage third-party tool development, and the list of endorsers is impressive. It includes 0-In, Antrim, Aptix, ARM, Averant, Axis, Denali, Forte, GDA Technologies, Ikos, Innologic, Innoveda, Interra, Intrinsix, Novas, Qualis, Real Intent, Redback Networks, Samsung, Stratus, Sun Microsystems, SynaptiCAD, Tensilica, Tharas, Verplex and Zaiq.

But Synopsys' Goldman could name only two companies that have announced Vera tool support — Denali and SynaptiCAD.

Vera is currently integrated with Denali's Memory Modeler product, but so is Verisity's "e" language, said a spokesman for Denali Software Inc. SynaptiCAD will soon announce Vera support for its TestBencher Pro product, said Dan Notestein, president of SynaptiCAD Inc. It will also support Verisity "as soon as we've resolved some questions about licensing."

When queried by EE Times, representatives of Aptix, Averant, CoWare, Novas, Real Intent and Verplex all spoke favorably about OpenVera, but none offered any plans for Vera tool development. But Steve Carlson, chief executive officer of Tharas Systems Inc., disclosed his company's plan to provide direct acceleration of the Vera language.

"OpenVera is the most widely used language today, so it represents the best starting point for an industry-wide standard," Carlson said.

Without backing from Cadence and Mentor, however, establishing an industry standard is extremely unlikely. "We've invited them to join, but as usual, the big EDA vendors take a little longer," said Goldman. Cadence's O'Reilly said his company already has "pretty solid" Vera interfaces to NC-Verilog, and isn't planning to make use of the Vera LRM.

Verisity, meanwhile, claims that Cadence, Mentor, Real Intent, Structured Design Verification, SynaptiCAD and Valiosys are all working to read or write the "e" language.