THE WORLD OF VLSI & VHDL

Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow

The World of VLSI

History of the Integrated Circuit (IC) design The IC Technologies

 History of the IC designIn 1947 Transistor was

invented & demonstrated @ Bell Labs The first IC appeared in the market in 1961
~14 years after the transistorFlip-flop: 2 transistors & resistorsCost
~$100

The Silicon Technology is Growing... Now on the same amount of Silica ~500 times faster operations 10 million transistors, 1/2 mile of interconnectCost few cents!!! The Technology changes compared to the IC Design cycle

Moores Law
In 1965, GardonMoore stated that the silicon technology will double the number of transistors on a chip every 2 years!!!
And it is happening !!!!!!

The Search of products

How to reduce the high designing cost for

future success of this technology ??? : 1968 Noyce

Reduce the cost of design process

Find product with large market-Regular structure,

Many applications 1968 :Noyce, Moore & Grove Forms Intel !!SemiconductorMemory Chip

Microprocessor Technology
Microprocessor = IC Tech +SoftwareProcessor

Power+Memory capacity

Software market

Advantages of VLSI ?
Less AREA (compactness at system levels) Less POWERConsumption Less TESTING(more complex testing) Higher RELIABILITY

(due to improved on-chip interconnects) Higher SPEED(due to reduced interconnect length) Significant COST SAVINGS

The goal of the IC designer

Meet the market requirements
Satisfying customers need Beating the competition

Increasing performance or functionality of the product

Reducing cost compared to the available solutions Achieved by:

Using next generation Silicon technologies New design concepts & tools High level of integration

The Design is an optimization problem with

parameters as Technology, Time, Cost and Customer requirements

Design Approaches
Custom
full control of design

best results, slowest design time.

Semi-custom (std cell)

use Cell libraries from vendor

cad tools, faster design time

EPLA/EPLD -FPGA
Electrically Programmable (in the Field)

ASIC(Application Specific Integrated Circuit)

Implements custom functions according to description
Not off-the-shelf

Can be described in HDL (Verilog,VHDL)

in an abstract technology Independent fashion

Verified using a simulator

Analogous to software debugger

Constructed out of logical function cells

(AND,OR) and Re-Usable Macro

Building blocks (ADDERs, REGISTERs) Mapped or translated using Synthesis products

Implemented in

Field Programmable, Standard Cell or Gate Array families

For high volume production

Designers pay CAD vendors ~$50K -$500K for Design tools Designer pay foundry( ~ $200K -.5M) and per part agreement

Field Programmable Gate Array

A chip that can be configured by a user to

implement different digital logic circuits

Invented in 1984 FPGA building blocks:
Programmable logic blocks Programmable interconnectField

To compress the digital world. To explore the hidden perfection and create the brain of a machine.

*The above two are considered as a very difficult tasks in the field of electronics engineering, where in fact its a very simple technology.

 VHDL is for coding models of a digital system.

Reasons for modeling:

Requirements specification Documentation Testing using simulation Formal verification Synthesis

Goal:
Most reliable design process, with minimum cost

and time Avoid design errors!

 VHDL is a programming language that allows one

to model and develop complex digital systems in a dynamic environment.

Object Oriented methodology for you C people

can be observed -- modules can be used and reused.

Allows you to designate in/out ports (bits) and

specify behavior or response of the system.

 C is procedural language whereas VHDL is semi

concurrent & semi sequential language.

C is

Case Sensitive whereas VHDL is case insensitive.

are some similarities, as with any programming language, but syntax and logic are quite different.

There

 Interfaces (PORTS)

Behavior
Structure Test Benches Simulation Synthesis

Dataflow

Behavioral
Structural Kind of BORING sounding huh?? Well, it gets more exciting with the details !! :)

Uses statements that defines the actual flow of data.....

such as, x <= y -- this is NOT less than equal to -- told you its not C

this assigns the Boolean signal x to the value of Boolean signal y... i.e. x = y this will occur whenever y changes....

Entity declaration
(Describes the input/output ports of a module)
entity name port names port mode (direction)

entity reg4 is port ( d0, d1, d2, d3, en, clk : in bit; q0, q1, q2, q3 : out bit ); end entity reg4;

punctuation

reserved words

port type

 Architecture body
Describes an implementation of an entity May be several per entity

Behavioral architecture
Describes the algorithm performed by the module Contains Process statements, each containing
Sequential statements, including
Signal assignment statements and Wait statements

 Omit entity at end of entity declaration. Omit architecture at end of architecture body.

Omit is in process statement header.

entity reg4 is port ( d0, d1, d2 : in bit d3, en, clk : in bit; q0, q1, q2, q3 : out bit ); end reg4;

architecture behav of reg4 is begin process (d0, ... ) ... begin ... end process ; end behav;

 Structural architecture
implements the module as a composition of

subsystems contains
signal declarations, for internal interconnections
the entity ports are also treated as signals

component instances
instances of previously declared entity/architecture pairs

port maps in component instances

connect signals to component ports

 An architecture can contain both behavioral and structural parts

Process statements and component instances Collectively called concurrent statements

Processes can read and assign to signals

Example: register-transfer-level (RTL) model

Data path described structurally

Control section described behaviorally

multiplier

multiplicand

shift_reg

control_ section

shift_ adder

reg

product

 Testing a design by simulation Use a test bench model

A model that uses your model Apply test sequences to your inputs Monitors values on output signals

Either using simulator. Or with a process that verifies correct operation Or logic analyzer.

 Discrete event simulation

Time advances in discrete steps. When signal values changeevents occur.

A processes is sensitive to events on input

signals
Specified in wait statements. Resumes and schedules new values on output

signals.
Schedules transactions. Event on a signal if value changes.

Initial Design Entry

VHDL, Schematic, State Diagram

Logic Optimization
Technology Mapping Placement Routing Programming Unit

Optimize Boolean Expression into a standard form - To optimize area or speed

Minimized Blocks - To minimize area Where the logic block is placed ? - With optimum routing wire Connection between cells - To minimize area.

Used to configure the final circuit

 Implement the VHDL portion of coding for synthesis.

Identify the differences between behavioral and

structural coding styles. Distinguish coding for synthesis versus coding for simulation. Use scalar and composite data types to represent information. Use concurrent and sequential control structure to regulate information flow. Implement common VHDL constructs (Finite State Machines [FSMs], RAM/ROM data structures).

Executable specification. Functionality separated from implementation. Simulate early and fast (Manage complexity) Explore design alternatives. Get feedback (Produce better designs) Automatic synthesis and test generation (ATPG for ASICs) Increase productivity (Shorten time-to-market) Technology and tool independence. Portable design data (Protect investment)

 Digital Signal Processing.

IC Testing & Analysis.

FPGA Design Verification. FPGA Development.

Hardware Design.
IC designing. ASIC Development.

 THANK YOU
E-Mail Gaurav_rai@live.com