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TN 423: Vlsi Circuits: Lecture 6d

The document discusses design considerations for CMOS integrated circuits. It describes how circuit design is partitioned across large teams and abstraction levels, from system level to transistor level. The goals of this structured design approach are to manage complexity through hierarchy, regularity, modularity, and locality. This allows the implementation to be divided among many engineers while maintaining system optimization.

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Bernard Mkumbwa Jr.
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44 views21 pages

TN 423: Vlsi Circuits: Lecture 6d

The document discusses design considerations for CMOS integrated circuits. It describes how circuit design is partitioned across large teams and abstraction levels, from system level to transistor level. The goals of this structured design approach are to manage complexity through hierarchy, regularity, modularity, and locality. This allows the implementation to be divided among many engineers while maintaining system optimization.

Uploaded by

Bernard Mkumbwa Jr.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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TN 423: VLSI CIRCUITS

Lecture 6d

CMOS IC DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits


Outline
Ω Layout Design Rules

Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits


Design Partitioning
Ω So far, you know
 how to build logic gates out of transistors.
 how transistors are fabricated
• Fabrication processes
 how to draw a layout that specifies how
transistors should be placed and connected
together.
• Stick diagrams

Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits


Design Partitioning
Ω The greatest challenge in modern VLSI design is
not in designing the individual transistors but rather
in managing system complexity.
Ω Modern System-On-Chip (SOC) designs combine
 memories,
 processors,
 high-speed I/O interfaces, and
 dedicated application-specific logic on a single chip.
Ω They use hundreds of millions or billions of
transistors
Ω They cost tens of millions of dollars (or more) to
design.
Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits
Design Partitioning
Ω The implementation must be divided among
large teams of engineers and each engineer
must be highly productive.

Circuit Engineers
Layout Design
Engineers

Fabrication Engineers

Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits


Design Partitioning
Ω If the implementation is too rigidly partitioned,
each block can be optimized without regard to
its neighbors, leading to poor system results
Ω If every task is interdependent with every other
task, the design will progress too slowly.

Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits


Design Partitioning
Ω Design proceeds through multiple levels of
abstractions, hiding details until they become
necessary.
Ω The practice of structured design, also used in large
software projects, uses the following principles to
manage the complexity
 hierarchy,
 Regularity aids the management of design complexity by
designing the minimum number of different blocks,
 Modularity requires that the blocks have well-defined
interfaces to avoid unanticipated interactions., and
 Locality involves keeping information where it is used,
physically and temporally.
Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits
Structured Design
Ω A large system can be partitioned hierarchically
into multiple cores.
Ω Each core is built from various units.
Ω Each unit in turn is composed of multiple
functional blocks.
Ω These blocks in turn are built from cells, which
ultimately are constructed from transistors.

Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits


Structured Design
System

Cores

Units

Functional blocks

Cells

Transistors
Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits
Design Abstractions
Ω Digital VLSI design is often partitioned into five
levels of abstractions:
1. architecture design:describes the functions of the
system
2. microarchitecture design: describes how the
architecture is partitioned into registers and
functional units
3. logic design: describes how functional units are
constructed
4. circuit design: describes how transistors are used to
implement the logic and
5. physical design: describes the layout of the chip
Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits
Design Abstractions
The x86 microprocessor architecture
architecture
design the instruction set, register set, and memory model

The 80386, 80486, Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium III,


microarchitecture Pentium 4, Core, Core 2, Atom, Cyrix MII, AMD Athlon,
design and Phenom

logic design logic designs for a 32-bit adder in the x86 integer unit
include ripple carry, carry look ahead, and carry select

a carry look ahead adder can use static CMOS circuits,


circuit design domino circuits, or pass transistors

physical design

Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits


Design Abstractions
Ω The choices of microarchitecture and logic are
strongly dependent on the number of transistors
that can be placed on the chip, which depends on
 the physical design and
 process technology.
Ω Innovative circuit design that reduces a cache
access from two cycles to one can influence
which microarchitecture is most desirable.
Ω The choice of clock frequency depends on a
complex interplay of microarchitecture and logic,
circuit design, and physical design.
Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits
Design Abstractions
Ω Custom physical design allows
 more compact,
 faster circuits and lower manufacturing costs,
Ω However, custom physical design involves an
enormous labor cost.
Ω Automatic layout with CAD systems reduces the
labor and achieves faster times to market.

Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits


Design Flow in Digital VLSI
Ω An alternative way of viewing design partitioning is
shown with the Y-chart
Ω The Y-chart by Gajski is very convenient for situating
the various stages of digital design and the numerous
attempts to automate them.
Ω There are three different ways to look at a digital
system
 Behavioral perspective
 Structural perspective
 Physical perspective
Ω The three ways are shown by three axes
Ω Concentric circles represent various levels of
abstraction Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits
Design Flow in Digital VLSI

Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits


Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits
Design Flow in Digital VLSI
Behavioral Perspective
Ω Interested only in what a circuit or system does,
Ω The design is viewed as a black box that
processes information by producing some
output symbols in response to some input
symbols.
Ω What matters most is the dependency of the
output from past and present inputs, but timing
relationships between input data, output data,
and some clock signal are also of interest.

Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits


Design Flow in Digital VLSI
Structural Perspective
Ω This is concerned with connectivity, that is with the building
blocks from which a circuit is composed and with how they
connect to each other.
Ω Given some behavioral specification, it is almost always
possible to come up with more than one network for
implementing it.
Ω Structural alternatives typically differ in terms of circuit
 complexity,
 performance,
 energy efficiency,
Ω In other characteristics of practical interest such as
 parts list,
 fabrication technology,
 testability, etc. Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits
Design Flow in Digital VLSI
Physical Perspective
Ω This gives how the various hardware
components and wires are arranged in the
space available in a cabinet, on a board, or on a
semiconductor chip.
Ω Again, there is a one-to-many relationship
between structural description and physical
arrangement.

Ω Examples of circuits viewed at different levels of


abstraction and from all three perspectives are
shown here Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits
Design Flow in Digital VLSI
Ω Consider the following views of library cell of a
3-input NOR Gate

Symbol

Simulation model

Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits


Design Flow in Digital VLSI
transistor-level schematic

detailed layout

Ngeze, LV VLSI Circuits

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