VLSI Design Flow :
There are many standard tools available in market by various tool vendors for electronic
design automation. Figure below shows the complete VLSI design flow for the PLD design
tool.
The different steps involved in VLSI design flow are as follows,
Creating a project
Design entry
Functional simulation
Synthesis
Assigning the circuit inputs and outputs to specific pins of the PLD
Implementation
Simulating the designed circuit for area and time constraints
Programming and configuring the design on chip.
VLSI design flow
1) Design Entry :
Design entry is the first step in the design of any VLSI circuit using EDA tools. In this
step the intended design is entered on the personal computer. Figure below shows the various
ways of design entry. The various ways in design entry are as follows,
Schematic entry
Design entry using Hardware Description Languages(HDL)
Using Finite State Machines (FSM)
EDIF entry
Ways of design entry
Schematic entry :
Schematic is the design developed by the digital designer using different logical gates
and digital ICs. The schematics can be drawn on the monitor screen by using the CAD tools. In
this entry the designer first designs the equivalent digital systems using K-Map and instead of
implementing the design on the breadboard the design can be tested using the simulators.
Hardware description languages :
Hardware description languages originally developed for circuit modelling. Now a days
these are used for complex hardware design. In this the design is represented in the form of
coding template by using the syntaxes of the HDL. The different HDLs used in practice are :
VHDL
ABEL
VERILOG
Finite state machines :
The design can be entered using the state diagrams of the sequential circuits. The CAD
tool can be used to draw the complete state diagram on the personal computer and simulated
for the required results. Now a days the EDA tools are available which will convert the
complete state diagram into the HDL code and this HDL code is further processed.
EDIF entry :
EDIF is the Electronic Data Interchange Format, an industry standard file format for
specifying a design net list. It is generated by a EDIF design-entry tool.
Input files : VHDL file (.vhd, .vhdl), Verilog file (.v), ABEL file (.abl, .abv), EDIF file
(.edf), Schematic file (.sch), State diagram file (.dia), User constraints file (.ucf). Or as
user generated in particular entry editor
Output files : VHDL file (.vhd, .vhdl), Verilog file (.v), ABEL file (.abl, .abv), EDIF
file (.edf), Schematic file (.sch), State diagram file (.dia, .asf), User constraints file
(.ucf).
2) Functional/ Gate Level Simulation :
The functional gate level simulations are carried out to test the designs entered in the
design entry tools. The designs are tested by applying the test inputs are outputs are checked as
per the specifications. The important role of this simulations is to find the errors in the design
before the design is implemented in the target device (CPLD/FPGA). These simulations are
mainly carried out initial stages of the system design.
3) Compilers and Synthesis Tools :
A typical CAD software package contains several components. Analyze is the first step in the
synthesis flow. In this stage, the HDL code is checked for syntax errors. The Logic
optimization is the process that decreases the area or increases the speed of a design.
Normally the system designer develops the HDL code and the synthesis tool identifies
the syntax errors. Figure below shows the synthesis process. The synthesis process also
creates the netlist. Netlist is the description of the circuit developed by the HDL code.
Netlist is basically contains the connectors, instances and the connected signals.
Synthesis process
4) Assigning Constraint :
Design constraint is a subset of the values of a type. The set of possible values for an
object of a given type that can be subjected to a condition is called a constraint. The file
containing the information about the pins, there direction and locked pin of the selected
hardware device is called as User Constraints File (UCF). Before implementing the
design on the actual device this file is required which selects the particular functional
block (for CPLD) and configurrable logic block (for FPGA) on which design to be
loaded.
5) Implementation :
In this step the design is implemented on the device. A library containing the design unit
in which a given component is declared is called as Target cell library. The target library is
used to determine the visible entity declaration under certain circumstances for a default
binding indication. The different steps in implementation are as follows,
Netlist translation :
A program that converts all input results into a single merged file.
Mapping or fitting :
Mapping is the step in which the logic elements are mapped to the logic functions on a
FPGA device. Fitting is the step to put the design logic into macrocell locations of the
CPLD.
Floor planning :
Floor planning step is to plan the logic in a design. In this step manually blocks of logic
in an FPGA are placed.
Place and route :
Placing is the process of assigning physical device cell locations to the logic in a design.
Routing is the process of assigning logical nets to physical wire segments in the FPGA
that interconnects logic cells.
Timing simulation :
This simulation step is carried out after the synthesis, placing and routing of the design.
The important role of this step is to check the dynamic timing details of the HDL code.
A timing analysis or a point-to- point delay analysis of a design network is called as
Static Timing Analysis.
6) Programming:
The final step of the design process is the downloading of the design on the device. In
this step a bit stream file is created, a bit stream is a stream of data that contains location
information for logic on a device, that is, the placement of Configurable Logic Blocks. This bit
stream file is downloaded on the device using programming. Programming is the process of
configuring the programmable interconnect in the FPGA or CPLD.