Introduction to ASICs:
Full custom, Semi-custom and Programmable ASICs, ASIC Design flow, ASIC cell libraries.
CMOS Logic:
Data path Logic Cells: Data Path Elements, Adders: Carry skip, Carry bypass, Carry save, Carry select, Conditional sum, Multiplier (Booth encoding), Data path Operators, I/O cells, Cell Compilers.
ASIC Library Design: Logical effort:
Predicting Delay, Logical area and logical efficiency, Logical paths, Multi stage cells, Optimum delay and number of stages, library cell design.
Programmable ASIC Logic Cells:
MUX as Boolean function generators, Acted ACT: ACT 1, ACT 2 and ACT 3 Logic Modules, Xilinx LCA: XC3000 CLB, Altera FLEX and MAX, Programmable ASIC I/O Cells: Xilinx and Altera I/O Block.
Low-level design entry:
Schematic entry: Hierarchical design, The cell library, Names, Schematic Icons & Symbols, Nets, Schematic Entry for ASICs, Connections, vectored instances & buses, Edit in place, attributes, Netlist screener.
ASIC Construction:
Physical Design, CAD Tools System partitioning, Estimating ASIC size.
Partitioning:
Goals and objectives, Constructive Partitioning, Iterative Partitioning Improvement, KL, FM and Look Ahead algorithms.
Floor planning and placement:
Goals and objectives, Measurement of delay in Floor planning, Floor planning tools, Channel definition, I/O and Power planning and Clock planning.
Placement:
Goals and Objectives, Min-cut Placement algorithm, Iterative Placement Improvement, Time driven placement methods, Physical Design Flow.
Routing:
Global Routing: Goals and objectives, Global Routing Methods, Global routing between blocks, Back-annotation. Detailed Routing: Goals and objectives, Measurement of Channel Density, Left-Edge Algorithm, Area-Routing Algorithms, Multilevel routing, Timing –Driven detailed routing, Final routing steps, Special Routing, Circuit extraction and DRC.