Modern VLSI Design: System-on-Chip Design, Third Edition

10CAD Systems and Algorithms

Highlights:

CAD system organization and databases.

Simulation.

Placement and routing.

Performance analysis.

Logic synthesis and state assignment.

Automatic test pattern generation (ATPG).

High-level synthesis and hardware/software co-design.

10.1 Introduction

Building a chip requires using a variety of CAD tools, both to analyze the design and to synthesize parts of the design. A modern CAD system is built from several million lines of code, so it isn’t reasonable to assume that a designer will understand every nuance of each tool. However, it is important that you understand the concepts underlying the major CAD tools you use. You need to understand what a tool can and cannot do to take the greatest ...