Introduction

The VLSI Design Process

The Design Process: An iterative process that refines an idea to a

manufacturable device through at least five levels of design
abstraction.

Top level: The idea refined into a set Specification:

of
requirements What does the chip
called do?
How fast does it
need to operate in
order to be
competitive?
How much power
will it consume?
How big will it be?

Design Constraints:
Speed, power and
area.

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The VLSI Design Process

Abstraction: A very effective means of dealing with design

complexity.
Creating a model at a higher level of abstraction involves
replacing detail at the lower level with simplifications.

Simulation: The functional behavior of the design (or a parameter

such as power) is determined by applying a set of excitation vectors
to a circuit model.

Levels of abstraction:
(1) Functional (architecture)
(2) Register Transfer Level (microarchitecture, block)
(3) Logic Design
(4) Circuit Design
(5) Physical Design

2
The VLSI Design Process
Hardware Description
Languages
Verilog, VHDL etc.
VHDL Example: 32 bit
adder
Specificati A B
on
Op
SUM
Behavior
Functional al entity ALU32 is port (
Design Simulati A, B: in bit_vector(31
on if (a=b) then
downto
sum < =0);‘0’ ;
.....)
else end ALU32;
sum < = (a or b);
end if;

3
The VLSI Design Process

IF/ ID/ EX/ MEM/

4 ID EX MEM WB

mux
zero
?

mux
P
Re
C
Register RTL g Dat

mux
Fil a
Transfer Simulati Inst
I
e Me

mux
R
Level on r
Me
m
Design m Sig store
n
Ex

load

A
B
C E
Logic Design Logic
Simulation Z
D F
Z <= E
OR F

4
The VLSI Design Process

Circuit Timing
Simulati
Design on

Physical Design
Rule
Design Checking

5
What is CMOS?
GND! Input
V DD !

n-substrate p-substrate
A CMOS contact contact
Inverter
polysilicon
Inpu
t n-diffusion p-diffusion

Vdd
GND N P ! (source)
! 1 1
(drain)
Output
Inverter Schematic
n-transistor p-transistor

n-diffusion p-diffusion
contact contact

Inverter Layout
Metal 1

Output

6
Hierarchy and Abstraction

Hierarchy is used in the design of complex VLSI circuits.

A large system can be partitioned into many units. Each unit can have functional blocks,
blocks are built from cells, cells are ultimately constructed from transistors.
The processor is a collection of modules each composed of cells.

Re-use of cells reduces design effort.

Abstraction is also used in digital designs.

It is critical for dealing with the design complexity.

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Hierarchy and Abstraction
Entire CAD design frameworks are based on this design philosophy.
These have made it possible to achieve current design complexity.

Examples of CAD tools for digital design are:

Simulators that work at various complexity
levels. Design verification tools.
Place and Route tools. (Layout
generation) Logic synthesis tools.

Standard cells are a popular design style

that makes layout generation easy.
Layouts of basic gates such as AND, OR, NAND, NOR, and NOT
as well as arithmetic and memory modules are provided as
input.

These cells are designed with similar characteristics, such as

constant height, and can be manipulated easily to generate a
layout.

Place-and-Route tools can use these libraries and generate layouts using logic level
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description of the design.