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ECE 425 VLSI Circuit Design

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ASICs - Application-Specific ICs. Standard Cells. Gate Arrays ... ASIC Trends - FPGAs vs. ASICs. Standard cell NRE costs are rising rapidly ... Structured ASICs ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: ECE 425 VLSI Circuit Design


1
ECE 425 - VLSI Circuit Design
  • Lecture 6 - ASIC Design
  • September 9, 2002

Prof. John NestorECE DepartmentLafayette
CollegeEaston, Pennsylvania 18042nestorj_at_lafayet
te.edu
2
Announcements
  • Homework due Friday 2/18
  • 2-2, 2-5, 2-6, 2-7, 2-8, 2-9, 2-12, 2-13, 2-20
  • Problem 2-13 hints
  • Assume VDD / p-transistors in top half,
  • Gnd / n-transistors in bottom half
  • Entrance Exam due Friday 2/18
  • Reading
  • Wolf 2.1-2.6, 3.1-3.4
  • Engineering Recruiting Day Fri. 4/1 in
    Philadelphia
  • Submit resumes to Career Services by Feburary 25

3
Where we are...
  • Last Time
  • Layout
  • Scaling
  • Today
  • The ITRS Roadmap
  • Overview of Layout-Level Tools
  • ASIC Design

4
Predicting future scaling - the ITRS
  • ITRS International Technology Roadmap for
    Semiconductors
  • Sponsored by Semiconductor Industry Association
  • Goal Forecast challenges in coming technology
    nodes
  • Overview WH Table 4.17

5
Review VLSI Levels of Abstraction
Specification (what the chip does, inputs/outputs)
Architecture major resources, connections
Register-Transfer logic blocks, FSMs, connections
Logic gates, flip-flops, latches, connections
Circuit transistors, parasitics, connections
Layout mask layers, polygons
6
Levels of Abstraction - Perspective
  • Right now, were focusing on the low level
  • Circuit level - transistors, wires, parasitics
  • Layout level - mask objects
  • Well work upward to higher levels
  • Logic level - individual gates, latches,
    flip-flops
  • Register- transfer level
  • Behavior level - specifications

7
The Challenge of Design
  • Start higher level (specification)
  • Finish lower level (implementation)
  • Must meet design criteria and constraints
  • Design time - how long did it take to ship a
    product?
  • Performance - how fast is the clock?
  • Cost - NRE unit cost
  • doing this successfully requires verification!

8
Layout-Level Design Tools
  • Design Tools
  • Schematic Editor (SUE)
  • Layout Editor (MAGIC)
  • Analysis Verification Tools
  • Circuit Extractor (MAGIC)
  • Circuit Simulator (Spice)
  • Timing Simulator (IRSIM)
  • Timing Analyzer
  • Layout vs. Schematic (LVS) Equivalence Checker
    (gemini)

9
CAD Tool Survey Layout Design
  • Layout Editors
  • Design Rule Checkers (DRC)
  • Circuit Extractors
  • Layout vs. Schematic (LVS) Comparators
  • Automatic Layout Tools
  • Layout Generators
  • ASIC Place/Route for Standard Cells, Gate Arrays

10
Layout Editors
  • Goal produce mask patterns for fabrication
  • Grid type
  • Absolute grid (MAX, LASI, LEdit, Mentor
    ICStation, other commercial tools)
  • Magic lambda-based grid - easier to learn, but
    less powerful
  • Mask description
  • Absolute mask (one layer for each mask)
  • Magic symbolic masks (layers combine to generate
    actual mask patterns)

11
Design Rule Checkers
  • Goal identify design rule violations
  • Often a separate tool (built in to Magic)
  • General approach scanline algorithm
  • Computationally intensive, especially for large
    chips

12
Circuit Extractors
  • Goal extract netlist of equivalent circuit
  • Identify active components
  • Identify parasitic components
  • Capacitors
  • Resistors

13
Layout Versus Schematic (LVS)
  • Goal Compare layout, schematic netlists
  • Compare transistors, connections (ignore
    parasitics)
  • Issue error if two netlists are not equivalent
  • Important for large designs

14
Automatic Layout Tools
  • Layout Generators - produce cell from spec.
  • Simple Procedural specification of layout (see
    book Fig. 2-35, p. 100)
  • Complex Netlist - places wires individual
    transistors
  • Common generators
  • Memory (RAM/ROM)
  • Structured Logic (PLA)
  • ASIC - Place, route modules with fixed shape
  • Standard Cells - use predefined cells as "cookie
    cutters"
  • Gate Arrays - configurable pre-manufactured gates
    (only change metal masks)
  • FPGAs - electrically configurable array of gates

15
ASICs - Application-Specific ICs
  • Standard Cells
  • Gate Arrays
  • Field-Programmable Gate Arrays

16
Standard Cells
  • All cells a fixed height (variable width)
  • Provide Vdd, Gnd to lines to connect by abutment,
    overlap
  • Cells placed in rows by placement program
  • Cells connected in channels by channel router

17
Standard Cell Layout
  • Multiple metal layers allow over-the-cell routing
  • Channels shrink or vanish in this case

18
Standard Cell Detail
19
Gate Arrays
  • Completed array of gates without final metal
  • Metal specified by CAD Tools
  • Tradeoffs vs standard cells
  • faster turnaround
  • lower NRE (non-recurring engineering) cost
  • higher unit cost

20
Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs)
  • Fixed array of gates
  • Electrically programmable interconnect
  • Tradeoffs very low NRE, high unit cost

CLB
CLB
CLB
CLB
21
ASIC Tradeoffs
22
ASIC Economics
  • Non-recurring Engineering (NRE) cost - up-front
    cost of setting up manufacturing
  • Unit cost - cost of each chip once production
    begins

Total Cost
Volume
23
ASIC Trends - FPGAs vs. ASICs
  • Standard cell NRE costs are rising rapidly
  • FPGAs improving in size, performance, cost
  • Will FPGAs supplant ASICs?

FPGA(current)
Total Cost
Volume
24
ASIC Trends - Perspectives
  • The ASIC has been declared dead
  • Rationale NRE costs are high, FPGAs more
    cost-effective in all but high-volume cases
  • This argument is very popular with FPGA vendors
  • But, reports may be exaggerated!
  • Many chips still designed with standard cells
  • Current trend ASICs with IP blocks
  • Current trend structured ASICs

25
Design with Intellectual Property (IP)
  • Key Idea re-use predesigned components
  • Hard IP - predesigned layout in a specific
    technology
  • Standard Cells
  • Processor Cores
  • Memory Cores
  • Soft IP - synthesizeable HDL
  • Proprietary algorithms (e.g. MPEG
    encoding/decoding)

26
Structured ASICs
  • Key idea provide a platform with many (but not
    all) functions for a common application
  • Network/Telecomm microprocessor, DSP,
    serializer/deserializer
  • Embedded Systems microcontroller, smart timer,
    other peripherals
  • Allow user to customize part of design to add
    secret sauce
  • FPGA Fabric - program in field
  • Gate Array or Gate Array Like - customize with
    metal layers only
  • Important benefit lower NRE costs

27
Structured ASIC eaxmple
  • LSI Logic RapidChip Platform (EE Times 9/9/02)
  • Application-specific hard IP on pre-designed,
    pre-manufactured chip
  • Logic added by adding metal layers to
    customize(maybe gate arrays arent dead after
    all?)

28
About Lab 4
  • Extraction using Magic
  • Simulation with IRSIM
  • Switch-Level Simulator
  • RC (t) timing model
  • LVS using gemini

29
Lab 4 - Extraction
  • in magic - extract creates filename.ext
  • in shell - ext2sim filename creates filename.sim

30
Lab 4 - Simulation using IRSIM
  • Starting IRSIM
  • in shell - irsim ami.prm filename.sim
  • Node values in simulation 0, 1, X, ...
  • Some important commands
  • analyzer net1 net2 trace signals in waveform
  • h net set net to logic H
  • l net set net to logic L
  • vector vname net1 net2 group nets into bus
  • set vname 001 set bus to value
  • s time step simulation - time ns
  • _at_ filename include command file
  • q quit simulation

31
Lab 4 - LVS using Gemini
  • Starting IRSIM
  • in shell - gemini file1.sim file2.sim
  • Where to get the files?
  • file1.sim - generated by Sue sim it
  • file2.sim - generated by extract, ext2sim

32
Coming Up
  • Combinational Logic Design
  • Gate Design Layout
  • Delay
  • Noise Margin
  • Power Consumption
  • A Mixed-Signal Digression D/A Converters
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