The Synthesis Approach to Digital System Design

Over the past decade there has been a dramatic change in the role played by design automation for electronic systems. Ten years ago, integrated circuit (IC) designers were content to use the computer for circuit, logic, and limited amounts of high-level simulation, as well as for capturing the digitized mask layouts used for IC manufacture. The tools were only aids to design-the designer could always find a way to implement the chip or board manually if the tools failed or if they did not give acceptable results. Today, however, design technology plays an indispensable role in the design ofelectronic systems and is critical to achieving time-to-market, cost, and performance targets. In less than ten years, designers have come to rely on automatic or semi automatic CAD systems for the physical design ofcomplex ICs containing over a million transistors. In the past three years, practical logic synthesis systems that take into account both cost and performance have become a commercial reality and many designers have already relinquished control ofthe logic netlist level of design to automatic computer aids. To date, only in certain well-defined areas, especially digital signal process ing and telecommunications. have higher-level design methods and tools found significant success. However, the forces of time-to-market and growing system complexity will demand the broad-based adoption of high-level, automated methods and tools over the next few years.

Springer Book Archives

Foreword.- Acknowledgements.- 1 Introduction to Synthesis.- 1.1 The Y-Chart-Levels and Domains of Description.- 1.2 Design Flow and Taxonomy of Synthesis.- 1.3 Entry Points and User Interfaces.- 1.4 Validation.- 1.5 Testing.- 2 Hardware Description Languages and their Relevance to Synthesis.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 VHDL Example- Bar-Code Preprocessor.- 2.3 VHDL Hardware Description Language.- 2.4 Relevance of HDLs to Synthesis.- 2.5 Outlook.- 2.6 Problems for the Reader.- 3 Logic-Level Synthesis.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Preliminaries and Definitions.- 3.3 Minimization of Two-Level Logic.- 3.4 Optimization of Multi-Level Logic.- 3.5 Outlook.- 3.6 Problems for the Reader.- 4 Technology Mapping.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Abstraction of Technology.- 4.3 Logic-Level Technology Mapping.- 4.4 Register-Transfer Level Technology Mapping.- 4.5 Outlook.- 4.6 Problems for the Reader.- 5 Register-Transfer Level Synthesis.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Data Path Synthesis.- 5.3 Controller Synthesis.- 5.4 Outlook.- 5.5 Problems for the Reader.- 6 High-Level Synthesis.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Internal Representation.- 6.3 Synthesis of the Register-Transfer Level Structure.- 6.4 Scheduling.- 6.5 Allocation and Assignment Tasks.- 6.6 Outlook.- 6.7 Problems for the Reader.- 7 System-Level Synthesis.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 System-Level Partitioning.- 7.3 Behavioral Transformations.- 7.4 Synthesizing from System-Level Descriptions.- 7.5 Outlook.- 8 Formal Methods for Synthesis.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Formal Reasoning about Digital Systems.- 8.3 Interactive, Formal Synthesis.- 8.4 Formally Verified Synthesis Functions.- 8.5 Outlook.- 8.6 Problems for the Reader.- 9 Synthesis Related Aspects of Simulation.- 9.1 Introduction.- 9.2 Multi-Level Modeling.- 9.3 Simulation Techniques.- 9.4 Multi-LevelSimulation.- 9.5 Outlook.- 9.6 Problems for the Reader.- 10 Synthesis Related Aspects in Testing.- 10.1 Introduction.- 10.2 General Testability Aspects.- 10.3 Test Objects in Synthesis.- 10.4 Test Methods for Synthesis.- 10.5 Test Data Generation.- 10.6 Outlook.- 10.7 Problems for the Reader.