VLSI DESIGN FLOW

Presentation by

Dr. N.L. Venkataraman,

Associate Professor / ECE,
J.J.College of Engineering and Technology
Contents
• Integrated Circuits (IC)

• IC & Classification

• Objective

• What is ASIC & FPGA?

• Processor Vs FPGA

• VLSI design flow

• VLSI application

• Conclusion
Integrated Circuits(ICs)

What is Integrated Circuit?

Integrated Circuits contains several transistors fabricated
on a single chip.
Classification of Integrated Circuits
Size classification( historical )

 <100 SSI 1963

100-3000 MSI 1970

 3000 – 30000 LSI 1975

30000 – 1000000 VLSI 1980

> 1000000 ULSI 1990

VLSI introduction : Objectives
Introduction:
A VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) system
integrates millions of “electronic components” in a small
area (few mm2  few cm2).

Objectives:
To design “efficient” VLSI systems that has:

•Circuit Speed (high )

• Power consumption ( low )
• Design Area ( low )
What is ASIC? & What is an FPGA?

• ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit)

 Fixed Function chip

• FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array)

 Programmable chip

FPGA vs ASIC 6 Xilinx Copyright

Processor vs. FPGA Programming

• Processor: hardware • FPGA: hardware

functionality already functionality created by
exists, software ‘programs’ ‘programming’
use of hardware

PROGRAM INSTRUCTIONS PROGRAM GATES

MEM
A B

ALU

HW FIXED HW CREATED
Xilinx Copyright FPGA vs ASIC 7
 VLSI design flow
1. idea (need) 2. specifications 3. design architecture 4. RTL coding

8.IC Chip 7.Foundry 6. Synthesis 5. RTL

Verification
1. Ideas
Any thing we needs chip

• Microprocessor
• Microcontroller
• Memories
• Printer
• Mobile
• Digital security
lock
2.Specifications
This is the crucial step as it will affect the future of the
product. Here, vendors may want to get feedback from
potential customers on what they are looking for

•Instruction set

•Interface (I/O pins)

•Organization of the system

•Functionality of each unit in the system, and how to

communicate it to other units.
3. Design architecture
• This is where the main work starts. With the help of
the specification sheet the target IC’s architecture is
decided and a layout for same is created by design
engineers using EDA tools.

EDA Tools :
•Synopsys – astro
•activehdl
•Xilinx - ise design suite
•Cadence - encounter digital ic design
4. RTL coding
RTL - register transfer level.
•This implies that the VHDL/VERILOG code written based
on the architecture describes how data is transformed as
it is passed from register to register.

RTL coding tools

• Xilinx ise
• Altera - Quartus
• Emacs
• conTEXT
• HDL TurboWriter
5. RTL Verification
RTL simulation and verification is one of the important
step. This ensures that the design is logically correct and
without major timing errors. It is advantageous to
perform this step, especially in the early stages of the
design.

RTL verification tools

• Modelsim
• Xilinx ise
• Verilog - XL
• Finsim
• TestBuilder
6. Synthesis
This is where the design now start to get physical. Logic
synthesis is a process by which the desired circuit behavior
i.e. Register Transistor Level is turned into a design in
terms of logic gates which drives the circuit or architecture.

Synthesis tools/kit

• FPGA (Altera,digiland,xilinx)
• CPLD ( altera , digiland )
 7.Foundry
The design is sent for Fabrication for mass
production to foundry .
8.IC Chip
Application of VLSI
VLSI companies in india
CONCLUSION
VLSI is suitable for fabrication of larger number of
components on a single chip.

VHDL/Verilog is used for digital circuit designing and

to validate the design and check the design
specification.
THANK YOU

QUARRYS???