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Computer-Aided Circuit Design (2)

ECE617

Mohamed Dessouky
Integrated Circuits Laboratory

Ain Shams University Cairo, Egypt

Mohamed.Dessouky@eng.asu.edu.eg
ECE617 Introduction

CAD for Chip Designers

Building a chip requires using a variety of CAD tools, both to analyze and to synthesize parts of the design. It is not reasonable to assume that a designer will understand every nuance of each tool. However, it is important that he understands
the concepts underlying the major CAD tools. what a tool can and cannot do to take the greatest advantage of it, and to avoid unpractical outputs!!

Understanding a CAD tool requires learning its underlying models and algorithms. Detailed study of CAD algorithms is NOT the main goal of this course. More a computer science issue!!

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Course Positioning
Computer Science
Programming Languages
Machine Language

Instruction Set
System Organization (Design)

This course

Hardware Description Languages

FlipFlops
Gates

C A D

Circuits
Devices Transistor Physics

Electrical Engineering

IC Processing

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CAD Digital Design Flow

It is a project-based course!! The course is centered on ASIC digital design. Youll go through the design flow step-by-step, practically. Youll use the appropriate CAD tools at each step.

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Youll Learn
Hardware Description Language VHDL

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Youll Learn
Digital Simulation

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Youll Learn
Design Synthesis: VHDL to Schematics

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Youll Learn
Cell Placement

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Youll Learn
Cell Routing

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Youll Learn
Pad Ring design

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At the end of the Course

Each of you will produce a complete chip at the end.

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CAD System: Alliance

The Alliance package is a free and complete set of CAD tools for the specification, design and verification of digital VLSI circuits. Each Alliance tool can operate as a standalone program as well as a part of the complete design framework. Refer to Alliance-overview.pdf

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Course Goals
The course gives a complete overview of all steps of VLSI design flow from specifications down to layout. Centered on the job of a modern digital circuit designer

Lifting the knowledge of the students in the VLSI Design domain to the professional level. Get acquainted with state-of-the-art CAD tools. Enables students to get easily absorbed in the VLSI industry.

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Lecture Notes
The lecture notes will include some material not covered in the principle textbook and will be the primary course material. However, the level of details and description in the notes will not be as complete as what you would find in a textbook.

Textbooks
Design: Neil H.E. Weste and David Harris, "CMOS VLSI Design", Third Edition, Pearson, Addison Wesley Design: J. Rabaey, A. Chandrakasan and B. Nikolic. "Digital Integrated Circuits: A Design Perspective", Prentice-Hall. 2nd Edition. CAD: W. Wolf , Modern VLSI Design, PEARSON, Prentice Hall. 3rd Edition. CAD: M. Smith, "Application-Specific Integrated Circuits", Addison Wesley

Some slides in this course are taken from

M216A: Design of VLSI Circuits and Systems. By C.K. Ken Yang. U. of California at Los Angeles EE271: Introduction to VLSI Systems. By Mark Horowitz. Stanford U.

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Class Logistics
Web Site: https://sites.google.com/site/asuece617/ Email: Mohamed.Dessouky@eng.asu.edu.eg Tools:
Linux operating system Alliance: A free VLSI CAD System Access through SSL cloud-based system

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Prepare Yourself
Linux: Resources->Background->Linux-HowtoStart.pdf Alliance: Resources->Tools->Alliance-overview.pdf

Install Both: Supplied CD with a Virtual Machine on Windows

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