Cocotb in modern functional verification – a critical Review and comparative analysis with SystemVerilog/UVM

Abstract

This paper presents a review of recent scientific
literature concerning the use of cocotb as a Python-based framework
for functional verification of digital systems. The study
categorizes existing works into three groups: design verification
case studies, tool enhancement methodologies, and comparative
analyses between cocotb and SystemVerilog/UVM environments.
The strengths and limitations of cocotb are evaluated with respect
to accessibility, ecosystem maturity, constrained random verification
capabilities, and industrial applicability. The analysis reveals
that cocotb provides a flexible, cost-effective solution, particularly
suited to early-stage RTL verification and open-source workflows,
while SystemVerilog/UVM remains advantageous for large-scale
industrial projects due to its mature ecosystem and commercial
tool integration. The paper identifies current gaps in methodology
evaluation, coverage analysis consistency, and reproducibility in
existing research, and outlines directions for future development
of hybrid verification flows.