Essential Electronic Design Automation (EDA)

System-Level Design Tools

Sam:

I think Andrea showed you a table of major design tools. Let me show you that table again, with the system-level tools highlighted. (See Table 5.1.) Engineers use programming languages or graphical block design tools to enter design ideas into the computer. They use modeling tools to help make design trade-offs and try out ideas and different approaches to the problems. Test benches provide a test environment for easier design verification. Initial timing analysis helps predict the system performance.

Table 5.1. Major ESL Tools

ELECTRONIC SYSTEM-LEVEL (ESL) DESIGN
Users	Tools
Architect	ESL Design Entry
System Engineer	ESL Modeling
IC System Engineer	ESL Verification (Bench Test)
	ESL Timing Analysis
FRONT-END (FE) DESIGN