New Year, New Space

We’ve more than gotten started on the new year. In fact, DVCon – reliably and predictably held during the last few days of February and initial few of March is right around the corner. And, here I am just getting the first post of the year out.

Getting a late start on blog posts this year isn’t for lack of interesting ideas and projects to, though. Here are a few things you can look forward to in the coming Blog year.

New Space

First, about the new space… For many years, I hosted the bitsbytesgates blog on the blogspot.com platform. It was (relatively) easy to type up posts, and simple was good. That said, the more technical content I put out (code snippets and such), the more I started to hit the usability edges of the blogspot environment. So, like so many of my peers, I decided it was time to take the plunge and move to a new platform, and that this was the year to do it.

Going forward, you can find the bitsbytesgates blog at https://bitsbytesgates.com.

Python Functional Verification

Using Python for functional verification continues to be an interest of mine. Declarative descriptions have also been an interest of mine for some time. This year, I want to look more deeply at how some of those declarative approaches to capturing aspects of verification environments can be deployed in Python to make Python-based functional verification even more productive.

Constrained-Random Generation and Functional Coverage

If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you’re aware of some of the Python-based projects that bring constrained-random generation and functional coverage capture and manipulation into Python. Using these capabilities in Python continues to be key, but I’m looking at making some of these capabilities available to projects not implemented in Python.

Portable Test and Stimulus (PSS)

I’ve been involved in the Accellera standards committee for Portable Test and Stimulus (PSS) since its inception, but haven’t written much about it here … until this year. I’m very optimistic about the opportunity PSS has to substantially improve the way that we approach system-level tests – and, especially, the creation of bare-metal software test content. Look for more about PSS, starting with a ground-up tour, in the coming year.

Conclusion

With that, welcome to the new blog space, and to a new year of posts. And, if you happen to be attending DVCon 2023 in San Jose, I hope we get a chance to interact live and in person!