This book serves as a hands-on guide to timing constraints in integrated circuit design. Readers will learn to maximize performance of their IC designs, by specifying timing requirements correctly. Coverage includes key aspects of the design flow impacted by timing constraints, including synthesis, static timing analysis and placement and routing. Concepts needed for specifying timing requirements are explained in detail and then applied to specific stages in the design flow, all within the context of Synopsys Design Constraints (SDC), the industry-leading format for specifying constraints.
This book serves as a hands-on guide to timing constraints in integrated circuit design. Readers will learn to maximize performance of their IC designs, by specifying timing requirements correctly. Coverage includes key aspects of the design flow impacted by timing constraints, including synthesis, static timing analysis and placement and routing. Concepts needed for specifying timing requirements are explained in detail and then applied to specific stages in the design flow, all within the context of Synopsys Design Constraints (SDC), the industry-leading format for specifying constraints.
iming, timing, timing! That is the main concern of a digital designer charged with designing a semiconductor chip. What is it, how is it T described, and how does one verify it? The design team of a large digital design may spend months architecting and iterating the design to achieve the required timing target. Besides functional verification, the t- ing closure is the major milestone which dictates when a chip can be - leased to the semiconductor foundry for fabrication. This book addresses the timing verification using static timing analysis for nanometer designs. The book has originated from many years of our working in the area of timing verification for complex nanometer designs. We have come across many design engineers trying to learn the background and various aspects of static timing analysis. Unfortunately, there is no book currently ava- able that can be used by a working engineer to get acquainted with the - tails of static timing analysis. The chip designers lack a central reference for information on timing, that covers the basics to the advanced timing veri- cation procedures and techniques.
Advanced ASIC Chip Synthesis: Using Synopsys® Design Compiler® and PrimeTime® describes the advanced concepts and techniques used for ASIC chip synthesis, formal verification and static timing analysis, using the Synopsys suite of tools. In addition, the entire ASIC design flow methodology targeted for VDSM (Very-Deep-Sub-Micron) technologies is covered in detail. The emphasis of this book is on real-time application of Synopsys tools used to combat various problems seen at VDSM geometries. Readers will be exposed to an effective design methodology for handling complex, sub-micron ASIC designs. Significance is placed on HDL coding styles, synthesis and optimization, dynamic simulation, formal verification, DFT scan insertion, links to layout, and static timing analysis. At each step, problems related to each phase of the design flow are identified, with solutions and work-arounds described in detail. In addition, crucial issues related to layout, which includes clock tree synthesis and back-end integration (links to layout) are also discussed at length. Furthermore, the book contains in-depth discussions on the basics of Synopsys technology libraries and HDL coding styles, targeted towards optimal synthesis solutions. Advanced ASIC Chip Synthesis: Using Synopsys® Design Compiler® and PrimeTime® is intended for anyone who is involved in the ASIC design methodology, starting from RTL synthesis to final tape-out. Target audiences for this book are practicing ASIC design engineers and graduate students undertaking advanced courses in ASIC chip design and DFT techniques. From the Foreword: `This book, written by Himanshu Bhatnagar, provides a comprehensive overview of the ASIC design flow targeted for VDSM technologies using the Synopsis suite of tools. It emphasizes the practical issues faced by the semiconductor design engineer in terms of synthesis and the integration of front-end and back-end tools. Traditional design methodologies are challenged and unique solutions are offered to help define the next generation of ASIC design flows. The author provides numerous practical examples derived from real-world situations that will prove valuable to practicing ASIC design engineers as well as to students of advanced VLSI courses in ASIC design'. Dr Dwight W. Decker, Chairman and CEO, Conexant Systems, Inc., (Formerly, Rockwell Semiconductor Systems), Newport Beach, CA, USA.
Since register transfer level (RTL) design is less about being a bright engineer, and more about knowing the downstream implications of your work, this book explains the impact of design decisions taken that may give rise later in the product lifecycle to issues related to testability, data synchronization across clock domains, synthesizability, power consumption, routability, etc., all which are a function of the way the RTL was originally written. Readers will benefit from a highly practical approach to the fundamentals of these topics, and will be given clear guidance regarding necessary safeguards to observe during RTL design.
The primary aim of this book is to introduce the concepts of FPGA timing based on Synopsys style timing analysis in a simplified yet concise way with emphasis on clear understanding of concepts and practical aspects away from syntax clutter or excessive sdc based examples.
Logic synthesis has become a fundamental component of the ASIC design flow, and Logic Synthesis Using Synopsys® has been written for all those who dislike reading manuals but who still like to learn logic synthesis as practised in the real world. The primary focus of the book is Synopsys Design Compiler®: the leading synthesis tool in the EDA marketplace. The book is specially organized to assist designers accustomed to schematic capture based design to develop the required expertise to effectively use the Compiler. Over 100 `classic scenarios' faced by designers using the Design Compiler have been captured and discussed, and solutions provided. The scenarios are based both on personal experiences and actual user queries. A general understanding of the problem-solving techniques provided will help the reader debug similar and more complicated problems. Furthermore, several examples and dc-shell scripts are provided. Specifically, Logic Synthesis Using Synopsys® will help the reader develop a better understanding of the synthesis design flow, optimization strategies using the Design Compiler, test insertion using the Test Compiler®, commonly used interface formats such as EDIF and SDF, and design re-use in a synthesis-based design methodology. Examples have been provided in both VHDL and Verilog. Audience: Written with CAD engineers in mind to enable them to formulate an effective synthesis-based ASIC design methodology. Will also assist design teams to better incorporate and effectively integrate synthesis with their existing in-house design methodology and CAD tools.
Are you an RTL or system designer that is currently using, moving, or planning to move to an HLS design environment? Finally, a comprehensive guide for designing hardware using C++ is here. Michael Fingeroff's High-Level Synthesis Blue Book presents the most effective C++ synthesis coding style for achieving high quality RTL. Master a totally new design methodology for coding increasingly complex designs! This book provides a step-by-step approach to using C++ as a hardware design language, including an introduction to the basics of HLS using concepts familiar to RTL designers. Each chapter provides easy-to-understand C++ examples, along with hardware and timing diagrams where appropriate. The book progresses from simple concepts such as sequential logic design to more complicated topics such as memory architecture and hierarchical sub-system design. Later chapters bring together many of the earlier HLS design concepts through their application in simplified design examples. These examples illustrate the fundamental principles behind C++ hardware design, which will translate to much larger designs. Although this book focuses primarily on C and C++ to present the basics of C++ synthesis, all of the concepts are equally applicable to SystemC when describing the core algorithmic part of a design. On completion of this book, readers should be well on their way to becoming experts in high-level synthesis.
This book is designed to serve as a hands-on professional reference with additional utility as a textbook for upper undergraduate and some graduate courses in digital logic design. This book is organized in such a way that that it can describe a number of RTL design scenarios, from simple to complex. The book constructs the logic design story from the fundamentals of logic design to advanced RTL design concepts. Keeping in view the importance of miniaturization today, the book gives practical information on the issues with ASIC RTL design and how to overcome these concerns. It clearly explains how to write an efficient RTL code and how to improve design performance. The book also describes advanced RTL design concepts such as low-power design, multiple clock-domain design, and SOC-based design. The practical orientation of the book makes it ideal for training programs for practicing design engineers and for short-term vocational programs. The contents of the book will also make it a useful read for students and hobbyists.
Design and optimization of integrated circuits are essential to the creation of new semiconductor chips, and physical optimizations are becoming more prominent as a result of semiconductor scaling. Modern chip design has become so complex that it is largely performed by specialized software, which is frequently updated to address advances in semiconductor technologies and increased problem complexities. A user of such software needs a high-level understanding of the underlying mathematical models and algorithms. On the other hand, a developer of such software must have a keen understanding of computer science aspects, including algorithmic performance bottlenecks and how various algorithms operate and interact. "VLSI Physical Design: From Graph Partitioning to Timing Closure" introduces and compares algorithms that are used during the physical design phase of integrated-circuit design, wherein a geometric chip layout is produced starting from an abstract circuit design. The emphasis is on essential and fundamental techniques, ranging from hypergraph partitioning and circuit placement to timing closure.
