Data processing

A system comprising:

• an integrated circuit providing circuitry to implement a hardware processing module to initiate data handling transactions, for transmission to a data handling module by a hardware transaction interface, in response to successive processing instructions, and a hardware verification module connectable to the hardware transaction interface and configured to detect hardware test data, representing an ordered series of communications via the hardware transaction interface generated in response to a test series of processing instructions;
• a computer program for controlling a host data processing apparatus to provide a simulation environment comprising an emulated processing module to initiate data handling transactions, for transmission to a data handling module by an emulated transaction interface, in response to successive processing instructions, and an emulated verification module connectable to the emulated transaction interface and configured to detect emulation test data, representing an ordered series of communications via the emulated transaction interface generated in response to the test series of processing instructions;
• in which one or both of the hardware verification module and the emulated verification module is configured to compare two or more instances of the test data generated in response to the same test series of processing instructions, at least one instance of the two or more instances being hardware test data and at least one instance of the two or more instances being emulation test data, and to detect whether the two or more instances of the test data are identical.

A data processing method comprising:

• a processing module initiating data handling transactions, for transmission to a data handling module by a transaction interface, in response to successive processing instructions;
• detecting test data, representing an ordered series of communications via the transaction interface generated in response to a test series of processing instructions;
• comparing two or more instances of the test data generated in response to the same test series of processing instructions;
• and
• detecting whether the two or more instances of the test data are identical.