Chapter 22. Navigating the FSM State/State Transition Coverage Window

Table of Contents

22.1. Navigating the FSM Window
22.2. Excluding/Including a State Transition
22.3. Displaying a New FSM

The Verbose FSM State/State Transition Coverage window allows the user to see which states and state transitions of a currently selected FSM have been covered or are uncovered. To view this window, simply select the "FSM" coverage metric mode in the coverage bar in the main window and select an underlined FSM state variable in the file viewer. This will cause the FSM Coverage window to be displayed with the currently selected FSM information loaded. Figure 22.1, “Verbose FSM Coverage Window” below shows an example of this window.

Figure 22.1. Verbose FSM Coverage Window

Verbose FSM Coverage Window


22.1. Navigating the FSM Window

The Verbose FSM window is split into two main frames. The top frame contains the expressions that make up the input and output states of the selected FSM. The bottom frame contains a two-dimensional table showing the covered and/or uncovered states and state transitions.

The state/state transition table is a two-dimensional table with all possible values of the input states in the left-most column, the output states in the upper-most row, and the state transitions in the rest of the table.

To determine which states have been uncovered in the table, simply find all state values in the input column or output row (both show the same information) which are highlighted with the "Uncovered" color selection specified in the preferences window. To determine which states have been covered in the table, simply find all state values in the input column or output row which are highlighted with the "Covered" color selection. All other state values which are not highlighted are either impossible values (if all of the state transitions were specified in the Verilog file) or are unknown for coverage (if not all of the state transitions were specified in the Verilog file).

To determine which state transitions have been uncovered in the table, simply find all empty boxes in the table that are highlighted with the "Uncovered" background color. If one of these exist, it specifies that the transition of "input state" (the value specified in the left-most column in the same row) to "output state" (the value specified in the upper-most row in the same column) did not occur. In the example above, we can see that the following state transitions did not occur:

  • 2 -> 4

  • 4 -> 1

Follow the same procedure for finding all covered state transitions in the table except that these boxes will be highlighted with the "Covered" background color. In the example above, we can see that the following state transitions occurred:

  • 1 -> 2

  • 1 -> 1 (loopback case)

  • 2 -> 2 (loopback case)

All other state transition boxes that are not highlighted are either impossible state transitions (if all state transitions were specified in the Verilog source code) or are unknown in their coverage (either not hit or impossible transition if all state transitions were not specified in the Verilog source code).

To exit this window, simply click on Close button. To see this help page for the FSM window, click on the help (?) button.

22.2. Excluding/Including a State Transition

Uncovered state transitions can be excluded/included for FSM coverage consideration. This is done by clicking on the "I" (state transition is currently included in coverage results) or "E" (state transition is currently excluded from coverage results) character in the middle of a state transition square. Changing a state transition from an "I" to an "E" will automatically cause a exclusion reason popup window to be displayed, allowing you to specify the reason for excluding this state transition. After a reason has been entered, the state transition summary coverage information in the listbox to be updated and the background color of the state transition box will change from the uncovered color to the covered color. Changing a state transition from an "E" to an "I" will automatically cause the state transition summary coverage information in the Main Window Summary Bar to be updated and the background color of the state transition box will change from the covered color to the uncovered color. Figure 22.2, “Example of excluded state transitions” below shows an example of the Figure 22.1, “Verbose FSM Coverage Window” state machine coverage information with a couple of state transitions excluded from coverage.

Figure 22.2. Example of excluded state transitions

Example of excluded state transitions


If all of the state transitions for a state machine have been excluded for coverage consideration, the output state variable in the file viewer will change its background from the uncovered to the covered background color. However, the underline will remain under the variable to allow the user to still examine the verbose FSM information for that state machine.

If the user excludes any state transition in the design, the Save CDD... option in the file menu will be enabled. This allows the user to save the excluded property either back to the CDD file (or to a newly named CDD file). Doing so will allow the user to load the CDD file at a different time and retain the knowledge of which state transitions have been excluded/included for coverage. Additionally, if a saved CDD file with coverage exclusion is merged with another CDD file, the excluded state transition information is preserved for the resulting merged CDD file.

If a state transition has been excluded from coverage and an exclusion reason was specified, you can view the reason for exclusion by moving the cursor over the state transition. This will cause a tooltip-style window to be displayed specifying the state transition and the reason for exclusion. The background color of the tooltip will be the same color as the "covered" background color to help distinguish it from a normal tooltip. To cause the exclusion reason tooltip to disappear, simply move the cursor off of the state transition cell.

22.3. Displaying a New FSM

If the Verbose FSM Coverage window is currently displayed, the user may select a new FSM state variable in the file viewer of the Main window. When a new FSM is selected, its information immediately replaces the currently selected FSM. This feature allows many different FSMs to be viewed one after the other without having to create/destroy a new window for each.

The user may also see the previous or next uncovered FSM in the main viewer by clicking either the left arrow button (for previous signal viewing) or the right arrow button (for next signal viewing). Note that the left arrow button will be disabled if there is not a signal previous to the current signal in the given module and the right arrow button will be disabled if there is not a signal after the current signal in the given module.