Introduction to Computer-Aided Design of VLSI Circuits

EDA

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Y.-W. Chang

Administrative Matters

Time/Location: ?? Instructor: ?? E-mail: ?? URL: ?? Office: ?? Office Hours: ?? Teaching Assistants: ?? Prerequisites: data structures (or discrete math) & logic
design. Required Text: S. H. Gerez, Algorithms for VLSI Design Automation, John Wiley & Sons, 1999 References: ?? (indicated in each unit).
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Course Contents

Course Objectives:

Study techniques for computer-aided design of VLSI circuits. Study problem-solving (-finding) techniques!!! Introduction to electronic design automation (4 hrs) High-level synthesis (2 hrs) Logic synthesis (6 hrs) Formal verification (6 hrs) Physical design: partitioning, floorplanning, placement, routing, compaction, deep submicron effects (15 hrs) Testing (12 hrs) Simulation (4 hrs)

Course Contents

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Grading Policy

Grading

Homework assignments: 25% Mini programming assignments: 25% One in-class open-book, open-note test: 25% Final project + presentation: 25% Team work is permitted (preferably 2 persons at most) Bonus for class participation

Course web site: ?? Academic Honesty: Avoiding cheating at all cost.

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Unit 1: Intro. to Electronic Design Automation

Course contents:

Introduction to VLSI design flow/methodologies/styles Introduction to VLSI design automation tools Semiconductor technology roadmap CMOS technology Chapters 1-2 Appendix A

Readings

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Milestones for IC Industry

1947: Bardeen, Brattain & Shockly invented the

transistor, foundation of the IC industry. 1952: SONY introduced the first transistor-based radio. 1958: Kilby invented integrated circuits (ICs). 1965: Moores law. 1968: Noyce and Moore founded Intel. 1970: Intel introduced 1 K DRAM.

First transistor
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First IC by Kilby

First IC by Noyce
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Milestones for IC Industry

1971: Intel announced 4-bit 4004 microprocessors (2250

transistors). 1976/81: Apple II/IBM PC. 1985: Intel began focusing on microprocessor products. 1987: TSMC was founded (fabless IC design). 1991: ARM introduced its first embeddable RISC IP core (chipless IC design).

4004 Intel founders

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IBM PC
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Milestones for IC Industry (Contd)

1996: Samsung introduced IG DRAM. 1998: IBM announces1GHz experimental microprocessor. 1999/earlier: System-on-Chip (SOC) methodology applications. An Intel P4 processor contains 42 million transistors (1 billion by
2005) Today, we produce > 30 million transistors per person (1 billion/person by 2008). Semiconductor/IC: #1 key field for advancing into 2000 (Business Week, Jan. 1995).

4GB DRAM (2001)

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Pentium 4

Scanner-on-chip

Blue tooth technology

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IC Design & Manufacturing Process

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From Wafer to Chip

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Traditional VLSI Design Cycles

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
System specification Functional design Logic synthesis Circuit design Physical design and verification Fabrication Packing Other tasks involved: testing, simulation, etc. Design metrics: area, speed, power dissipation, noise, design time, testability, etc. Design revolution: interconnect (not gate) delay dominates circuit performance in deep submicron era.

Interconnects are determined in physical design. Shall consider interconnections in early design stages.
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Traditional VLSI Design Cycle

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Traditional VLSI Design Flow (Cont'd)

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Design Actions

Synthesis: increasing information about the design by

providing more detail (e.g., logic synthesis, physical synthesis). Analysis: collecting information on the quality of the design (e.g., timing analysis). Verification: checking whether a synthesis step has left the specification intact (e.g., layout verification). Optimization: increasing the quality of the design by rearrangements in a given description (e.g., logic optimizer, timing optimizer). Design Management: storage of design data, cooperation between tools, design flow, etc. (e.g., database).

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Design Issues and Tools

System-level design

Partitioning into hardware and software, co-design, co-simulation, etc. Cost estimation, design-space exploration Behavioral descriptions (e.g. in Verilog, VHDL) High-level simulation High-level (or architectural) synthesis Schematic entry Register-transfer level and logic synthesis Gate-level simulation (functionality, power, etc) Timing analysis Formal verification
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Algorithmic-level design

From algorithms to hardware modules

Logic design:

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Logic Design/Synthesis

Logic synthesis programs transform Boolean

expressions into logic gate networks in a particular library. Optimization goals: minimize area, delay, power, etc Technology-independent optimization: logic optimization

Optimizes Boolean expression equivalent.

Technology-dependent optimization: technology

mapping/library binding

Maps Boolean expressions into a particular cell library.

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Logic Optimization Examples

Two-level: minimize the # of product terms.

Multi-level: minimize the #'s of literals, variables.

E.g., equations are optimized using a smaller number of literals.

Methods/CAD tools: Quine-McCluskey method

(exponential-time exact algorithm), Espresso (heuristics for two-level logic), MIS (heuristics for multi-level logic), Synopsys, etc.
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Design Issues and Tools (Contd)

Transistor-level design

Switch-level simulation Circuit simulation Partitioning Floorplanning and Placement Routing Layout editing and compaction Design-rule checking Layout extraction Data bases, frameworks, etc. The idea is approached more and more, but still far away from a single push-buttom operation
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Physical (layout) design:

Design management

Silicon compilation: from algorithm to mask patterns

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Circuit Simulation of a CMOS Inverter (0.6 m)

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Physical Design

Physical design converts a circuit description into a geometric

description. The description is used to manufacture a chip. Physical design cycle:
1. 2. 3. 4.

Logic partitioning Floorplanning and placement Routing Compaction

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Others: circuit extraction, timing verification and design rule checking

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Physical Design Flow

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Floorplan Examples

PowerPC 604

Pentium 4

A floorplan with 9800 blocks

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Routing Example
0.18um technology, pitch = 1 um, 2774 nets.

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IC Design Considerations

Several conflicting considerations:

Design Complexity: large number of devices/transistors Performance: optimization requirements for high performance Time-to-market: about a 15% gain for early birds Cost: die area, packaging, testing, etc. Others: power, signal integrity (noise, etc), testability, reliability, manufacturability, etc.

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Moores Law: Driving Technology Advances

Logic capacity doubles per IC at a regular interval. Moore: Logic capacity doubles per IC every two years (1975). D. House: Computer performance doubles every 18 months
(1975)

Intel uP

4004

8086

80386

PentiumPro

Pentium 4

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Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors

Source: International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors,

Nov, 2002. http://www.itrs.net/ntrs/publntrs.nsf. Deep submicron technology: node (feature size) < 0.25 m. Nanometer Technology: node < 0.1 m.

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Nanometer Design Challenges

In 2005, feature size 0.1 m, P frequency 3.5 GHz, die size 520 mm2,
P transistor count per chip 200M, wiring level 8 layers, supply voltage
1 V, power consumption 160 W. Feature size sub-wavelength lithography (impacts of process variation)? noise? wire coupling? reliability? Frequency , dimension interconnect delay? electromagnetic field effects? timing closure?

Chip complexity large-scale system design methodology? Supply voltage signal integrity (noise, IR drop, etc)? Wiring level manufacturability? 3D layout? Power consumption power & thermal issues?

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Design Productivity Crisis

10,000M 1,000M 100M 10M 1M 0.1M 0.01M 1980 1985 1990 1995 100,000K 10,000K

Human factors may limit design more than technology. Keys to solve the productivity crisis: hierarchical design,
abstraction, CAD (tool & methodology), IP reuse, etc.

Logic transistors per chip

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Productivity in transistors per staff-month

58%/yr compound complexity growth rate

Complexity limiter

1,000K 100K 10K

21%/yr compound 1K productivity growth rate

2000 2005 2010

0.1K

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Hierarchical Design

Hierarchy: something is composed of simpler things. Design cannot be done in one step partition the
design hierarchically. hierarchical

flat

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Abstraction

Abstraction: when looking at a certain level, you dont

need to know all details of the lower levels.
system module gate circuit device

Design domains:

Behavioral: black box view Structural: interconnection of subblocks Physical: layout properties

Each design domain has its own hierarchy.

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Three Design Views

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Gajskis Y-Chart

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Top-Down Structural Design

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Traditional VLSI Design Flow Revisited

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Traditional VLSI Design Flow Revisited (Cont'd)

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Design Styles

Specific design styles shall require specific CAD tools

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SSI/SPLD Design Style

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Full Custom Design Style

Designers can control the shape of all mask patterns.

Designers can specify the design up to the level of individual
transistors.

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Standard Cell Design Style

Selects pre-designed cells (of same height) to implement

logic

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Standard Cell Example

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Gate Array Design Style

Prefabricates a transistor array Needs wiring customization to implement logic

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FPGA Design Style

Logic and interconnects are both prefabricated. Illustrated by a symmetric array-based FPGA

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Array-Based FPGA Example

Lucent Technologies 15K ORCA FPGA

0.5 um 3LM CMOS

2.45 M Transistors 1600 Flip-flops 25K bit user RAM 320 I/Os

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FPGA Design Process

Illustrated by a symmetric array-based FPGA No fabrication is needed

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Comparisons of Design Styles

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Comparisons of Design Styles

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Design Style Trade-offs

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MOS Transistors

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Complementary MOS (CMOS)

The most popular VLSI technology (v.s. BiCMOS, nMOS). CMOS uses both n-channel and p-channel transistors. Advantages: lower power dissipation, higher regularity, more
reliable performance, higher noise margin, larger fanout, etc. Each type of transistor must sit in a material of the complementary type (the reverse-biased diodes prevent unwanted current flow).

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A CMOS Inverter

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A CMOS NAND Gate

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A CMOS NOR Gate

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Basic CMOS Logic Library

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Construction of Compound Gates

Example: Step 1 (n-network): Invert F to derive n-network

Step 2 (n-network): Make connections of transistors:

AND Series connection OR Parallel connection

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Construction of Compound Gates (contd)

Step 3 (p-network): Expand F to derive p-network

each input is inverted

Step 4 (p-network): Make connections of transistors

(same as Step 2). Step 5: Connect the n-network to GND (typically, 0V) and the p-network to VDD (5V, 3.3V, or 2.5V, etc).

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CMOS Properties

There is always a path from one supply (VDD or GND) to

the output. There is never a path from one supply to the other. (This is the basis for the low power dissipation in CMOS-virtually no static power dissipation.) There is a momentary drain of current (and thus power consumption) when the gate switches from one state to another.

Thus, CMOS circuits have dynamic power dissipation. The amount of power depends on the switching frequency.

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Stick Diagram

Intermediate representation between the transistor

level and the mask (layout) level. Gives topological information (identifies different layers and their relationship) Assumes that wires have no width. Possible to translate stick diagram automatically to layout with correct design rules.

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Stick Diagram (cont'd)

When the same material (on the same layer) touch or cross, they
are connected and belong to the same electrical node.

When polysilicon crosses N or P diffusion, an N or P transistor

is formed. Polysilicon is drawn on top of diffusion. Diffusion must be drawn connecting the source and the drain. Gate is automatically self-aligned during fabrication.

When a metal line needs to be connected to one of the other three

conductors, a contact cut (via) is required.

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CMOS Inverter Stick Diagrams

Basic layout

More area efficient layout

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CMOS NAND/NOR Stick Diagrams

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Design Rules
Layout rules are used for preparing the masks for fabrication. Fabrication processes have inherent limitations in accuracy. Design rules specify geometry of masks to optimize yield and
reliability (trade-offs: area, yield, reliability). Three major rules:

Wire width: Minimum dimension associated with a given feature. Wire separation: Allowable separation. Contact: overlap rules. Micron rules: stated at micron resolution. rules: simplified micron rules with limited scaling attributes.

Two major approaches:

may be viewed as the size of minimum feature.

Design rules represents a tolerance which insures very high
probability of correct fabrication (not a hard boundary between correct and incorrect fabrication). Design rules are determined by experience.
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SCMOS Design Rules

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Example MOSIS Layout Design Rules

MOSIS design rules (SCMOS rules) are available at

http://www.mosis.org. 3 basic design rules: Wire width, wire separation, contact rule. MOSIS design rule examples

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