How can I validate Ethernet switching and routing logic before silicon is available?

Before first silicon, you can validate packet-forwarding behavior, control plane logic, and buffer management through simulation or emulation. Pre-silicon verification tools let designers inject realistic Ethernet traffic into RTL or gate-level designs to exercise switching fabrics, routing tables, and buffer architectures under deterministic, controlled conditions. This is especially important for data center ASICs targeting AI/ML workloads, which demand ultra-low latency and high throughput. Tools like IxVerify emulate complex traffic patterns, such as congestion, multicast, and flow control, so you can observe protocol compliance, packet drop behavior, and control-plane responsiveness before physical prototypes exist, dramatically reducing the risk of re-spins at tape-out.

How do simulation and hardware emulation work together in pre-silicon network validation?

Pre-silicon verification workflows often span both RTL simulation and hardware emulation to balance accuracy and performance. Simulation offers detailed waveform visibility and precise control, making it ideal for early-stage debug and functional coverage. However, it is slow and doesn’t scale well for full-system scenarios. Hardware emulation platforms, on the other hand, can run at orders of magnitude faster speeds, supporting high-scale testing of data center workloads with realistic timing. The most effective pre-silicon tools, like IxVerify, are architected to support both simulation and emulation environments. They integrate with industry-standard verification methodologies (like SystemVerilog/UVM), support regression testing and automation, and scale up to emulate traffic across hundreds of ports, giving you full-stack insight during both design and bring-up.

What should be included in a comprehensive pre-silicon network ASIC verification strategy?

An effective pre-silicon strategy needs to test not just individual modules, but the full data/control plane pipeline under realistic load. This includes validating L2/L3 forwarding tables, protocol compliance (e.g., Ethernet, IPv4/IPv6, TCP, BGP), queue management and buffering, congestion algorithms, and control plane responsiveness. You should also test traffic shaping, multicast and broadcast behavior, flow control mechanisms, and system-level KPIs like latency, jitter, and packet loss. Scalable pre-silicon test tools can simulate entire data center topologies, allowing chip designers to validate fabric performance, scalability, and resiliency, all while logging results for coverage and regression analysis. This is critical in AI/ML use cases, where even microsecond-level issues can create system-wide bottlenecks.

How does realistic traffic modeling improve AI-ready ASIC verification?

AI infrastructure ASICs must process diverse and often unpredictable traffic patterns, including bursty AI training traffic, multicast inference updates, and control plane synchronization. Static or synthetic test vectors cannot replicate these scenarios with enough fidelity. Realistic traffic modeling introduces time-aligned packets, congestion conditions, dynamic flow control, and live protocol behavior to stress the DUT in ways that reflect production deployment. Pre-silicon tools that support this level of modeling, like IxVerify, enable early exposure of functional, timing, and performance issues under near-live conditions. This improves verification coverage, ensures the ASIC performs correctly under real workloads, and accelerates time to tape-out with confidence.

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Emulate traffic to validate ASIC and SoC design logic in EDA software

Keysight IxVerify delivers fast, deterministic emulation of large-scale Ethernet network traffic to validate routing and switching ASICs before hardware is available. Built for pre-silicon and early bring-up environments, IxVerify integrates into simulation and hardware emulation platforms to verify packet forwarding, buffer behavior, protocol compliance, and control-plane logic under realistic, high-scale traffic conditions. This flexible, virtual test solution empowers chip architects and designers to identify functional and performance issues earlier, accelerating tapeout schedules and reducing costly silicon respins. Choose a license based on your required interfaces, protocol support, and design software emulation. Request a quote for one of our popular configurations today. Need help selecting? Check out the resources below.

Early design verification

Emulate Ethernet traffic to verify routing, switching, and buffering logic in RTL and gate-level ASIC designs.

Workflow integration

Integrates with simulation and emulation platforms supporting Universal Verification Methodology automation and continuous regression testing.

Complex traffic emulation

Model congestion, multicast, and flow control to evaluate ASIC behavior under realistic network conditions.

Full-stack tests

Verify Layer 2 and 3 control and data plane logic, including protocol compliance, forwarding accuracy, and congestion management algorithms.

Number of interfaces

20 to Unlimited
Protocol support

Ethernet, MACsec, PTP / gPTP, TSN
EDA emulators supported

Siemens emulator, Synopsys emulator, Cadence emulator
License options

Subscription - 1 year

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IxVerify Purpose-built Ethernet emulation for pre-silicon ASIC verification