Intorduction
Intorduction
References:
1. Wolf, Wayne, Modern VLSI Design-System on Silicon,
Fourth Edition, Pearson
2. Comer,David J. Digital Logic State Machine Design,
Third Edition, Oxford University Press
3. Ashenden, Peter J., The Student’s Guide to VHDL,
Morgan Kaufman
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Overview
Introduction
Why VLSI?
Moore’s Law.
The VLSI design process.
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IC
an integrated circuit also known as IC,
microcircuit, microchip, silicon chip, or
chip
consisting mainly of semiconductor devices,
as well as passive components
manufactured in the surface of a thin
substrate of semiconductor material.
Integrated circuits are used in almost all
electronic equipment in use today and have
revolutionized the world of electronics
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Generations
SSI, MSI and LSI
Small-Scale Integration (SSI): digital
circuits containing transistors numbering in
the tens provided a few logic gates(1960)
Medium-Scale Integration (MSI):
devices which contained hundreds of
transistors on each chip(late 1960s)
Large-Scale Integration (LSI):
in the mid 1970s, with tens of thousands of
transistors per chip
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VLSI
very large-scale integration
The final step in the development process
Starting in the 1980s and continuing
through the present
The development started with hundreds of
thousands of transistors in the early 1980s,
and continues beyond several billion
transistors as of 2009.
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ULSI, WSI, SOC and 3D-IC
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Why VLSI?
Integration improves the design:
lower parasitics = higher speed;
lower power;
physically smaller.
Integration reduces manufacturing
cost-(almost) no manual assembly.
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VLSI and you
Microprocessors:
personal computers;
microcontrollers.
DRAM/SRAM.
Special-purpose processors.
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Moore’s Law
Gordon Moore: co-founder of Intel.
Predicted that number of transistors
per chip would grow exponentially
(double every 18 months).
Exponential improvement in
technology is a natural trend: steam
engines, dynamos, automobiles.
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Moore’s Law plot
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The cost of fabrication
Current cost: $2-3 billion.
Typical fab line occupies about 1 city
block, employs a few hundred people.
Most profitable period is first 18
months-2 years.
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Cost factors in ICs
For large-volume ICs:
packaging is largest cost;
testing is second-largest cost.
For low-volume ICs, design costs may
swamp all manufacturing costs.
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The VLSI design process
Major levels of abstraction:
specification;
architecture;
logic design;
circuit design;
layout.
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Challenges in VLSI design
Multiple levels of abstraction:
transistors to CPUs.
Multiple and conflicting constraints:
low cost and high performance are
often at odds.
Short design time: Late products are
often irrelevant.
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Dealing with complexity
Divide-and-conquer: limit the number
of components you deal with at any
one time.
Group several components into larger
components:
transistors form gates;
gates form functional units;
functional units form processing elements;
etc.
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Hierarchical name
Interior view of a component:
components and wires that make it up.
Exterior view of a component = type:
body;
pins. cout
sum
a Full
adder
b
cin
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Instantiating component types
Each instance has its own name:
add1 (type full adder)
add2 (type full adder).
Each instance is a separate copy of
the type:
cout Add2.a
Add1.a
sum sum
a Add1(Full a Add2(Full
adder) adder)
b b
cin cin
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A hierarchical logic design
box1 box2 x
z
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Component hierarchy
top
i1 xxx i2
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Layout and its abstractions
Layout for dynamic latch:
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Stick diagram
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Transistor schematic
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Mixed schematic
inverter
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Levels of abstraction
Specification: function, cost, etc.
Architecture: large blocks.
Logic: gates + registers.
Circuits: transistor sizes for speed,
power.
Layout: determines parasitics.
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Circuit abstraction
Continuous voltages and time:
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Digital abstraction
Discrete levels, discrete time:
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Register-transfer abstraction
Abstract components, abstract data types:
0010
+
0001
+ 0011
0100
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Top-down vs. bottom-up design
Top-down design adds functional
detail.
Create lower levels of abstraction from
upper levels.
Bottom-up design creates
abstractions from low-level behavior.
Good design needs both top-down
and bottom-up efforts.
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Design abstractions
English specification
Executable Throughput,
program behavior design time
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Manufacturing test
Not the same as design validation:
just because the design is right
doesn’t mean that every chip coming
off the line will be right.
Must quickly check whether
manufacturing defects destroy
function of chip.
Must also speed-grade.
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