Verilator – SystemVerilog simulator and lint system

Verilator is a SystemVerilog simulator and lint system aimed at high-performance digital design verification.

Unlike an event-driven interpreter, it translates Verilog and SystemVerilog designs into compiled C++ or SystemC models which can then be built into native executables. Linting is integrated into the same frontend, allowing the parser and elaborator to identify questionable constructs without generating a simulation model. This combination makes Verilator useful both as a standalone code checker and as part of larger verification environments where simulation speed, standards checking and automated source analysis are important.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

• Accepts both Verilog and SystemVerilog hardware descriptions.
• Offers a dedicated lint-only mode that checks source without producing generated simulation files.
• Provides numerous diagnostics covering correctness, suspicious constructs and coding-style concerns.
• Lets users enable, disable or promote individual warning classes according to project policy.
• Supports source directives for selectively suppressing lint findings where particular constructs are intentional.
• Translates designs into C++ or SystemC for compilation into efficient native simulation models.
• Can automatically build a complete simulator executable for suitable designs.
• Supports multithreaded generated models for designs that can benefit from parallel execution.
• Can emit parser and elaboration data as JSON for consumption by external development tools.
• Provides IEEE-style preprocessing independently of full model generation.
• Supports assertion processing and several forms of coverage analysis for verification workflows.
• Integrates with C++ and SystemC test environments and can be used with other open source verification software.

Website: github.com/verilator/verilator
Support:
Developer: Wilson Snyder and contributors
License: GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 or Artistic License 2.0

Verilator is primarily written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

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