( DAC 99 Item 25 ) ----------------------------------------------- [6/25/99]

    "Product: SureFire's SureSolve          Rating: 1 Gator (out of 4)

     Suresolve is an automatic RTL test pattern generator which works
     with their code coverage tool and generates test sequences to achieve
     100% code coverage.  It is intended to work at the module level and
     relieve the burden of writing exhaustive testcases.  In some cases,
     I can see this tool being useful.  However, generating tests just to
     achieve a goal of 100% coverage seems strange to me.  Many problems
     in verification are found when modules interact with each other.  As
     modules get larger, the number of possible states grows exponentially
     and the tool will break down.

     Product: SureFire's SureThing          Rating: 2 Gators (out of 4)

     This new product combines several tools from their product line
     together within an integrated environment.  Although I'm always wary
     when vendors try to provide a complete solution, this suite combines
     an interpreted Verilog simulator, a source-code debugger, a waveform
     viewer, a built-in lint tool, automatic FSM analysis, code coverage,
     and automatic RTL test vector generation.  This is a nice package of
     tools together, but the same capability can be provided using a number
     of point tools together.  Several of these point tools exceed the
     capabilities of the Surefire tools, so the main advantage in these
     tools is their integrated environment.

         - an anon engineer


    "Cover Tools: same old.  Most have added linters or other things.
     Surecover generates a testbench to bring your test coverage up to
     100%.  No correlation to reality.  I think it would die easily on
     a large scale verification environment with lots of levels, and even
     if it didn't, there is no correlation to what it has done for you."

         - Peet James of Qualis Design