Paper Title
UART IP Core Verification By Using UVM
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to verify the Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) protocol
using Universal Verification Methodology (UVM). The UART allows serial communication between two systems running
in different operating-frequencies, by converting parallel data into serial form and transmitting serially in frames. The frames
are collected in the receiver by receiving bit-by-bit of a frame. Once the frame is collected, it converts the serial data into
parallel data. This UART IP core is designed compatible with the industry standard National Semiconductors 16550A
device. The key features of this paper are using an 8-bit WISHBONE interface, 16 bit FIFO in UART. RTL logic is written
using Verilog HDL. It is verified using UVM test bench methodology. The main aim of this paper is to get 100% functional
coverage by doing regression test cases. The UART also generates interrupts, which indicate errors, during transmission of
data. The errors may arise due to mismatches in framing of transmitted data, parity-detection, etc. The operation of UART
is simulated using Riviera Pro software. The result obtained in this paper is 100% functional coverage.
Keywords— UART,UVM,Wishbone interface,FIFO,IP Core.