Spring 2014

Introduction.

Electronic Design Automation (EDA) concerns the correctness, reliability, productivity, and optimization of system construction. It is an interdisciplinary field, where electrical engineering and computer sciences intersect. In EDA, theoretical computer science (including algorithms, complexity, automata, logic, programming languages, etc.) finds rich and practical applications. On the other hand, some of the techniques developed in the EDA community have been much enhanced the state-of-the-art solvers on intractable problems. In this course we will study some representative problems and solutions making VLSI design an automatic process. In particular, we will cover system modeling, optimization, analysis, and verification.

Course outline.

1.             Introduction

    History, VLSI design flow, etc.

2.             Models of computation

    Finite state machines, automata, Kahn process network, Petri-nets, etc.

3.             High-level synthesis

    Design space exploration, resource sharing, etc.

4.             Logic synthesis

    Technology independent optimization, technology mapping, technology dependent optimization, timing and power analysis, etc.

5.             Verification

    Combinational and sequential equivalence checking, property checking, etc.

                Physical design

    Floorplanning, placement, routing, etc.

6.             Testing

    Combinational and sequential ATPG, design for test, etc.

6.             Simulation

   Numerical techniques, device modeling, switch-level and logic-level simulation, etc.

7.      

Textbook and reference books.

Textbook:

        Laung-Terng Wang, Kwang-Ting (Tim) Cheng, and Yao-Wen Chang (editors). Electronic Deisng Automation: Synthesis, Verification, and Test. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2009.

Other references:

        Handouts.

Grading policy.

Please see the introduction slides.

Prerequisites.

Logic design, or by the consent of the instructor.