EE 179 VHDL 2/5/2004 VHDL LECTURE
NOTES LEC#1
Facts
q Information era
q Digital –dominate technology for
information processing
q Digital hardware (HW)-is the platform for
supporting digital technology
Digital HW
-------- > CPU(>Processor)
-------- >Dedicated – can run software on it.
Why digital?
q Robustness, accuracy
q 
The nut shell graph
q Different difficulties/complexities for
analogy and digital HW
o Analog-is more of an art
o Digital-is measured by size
q The driving forces for digital HW.
o Demand (application, market)
o Technology (semiconductors,
o EDA tools electronic design automation
q Current main technologies for digital HW
o Masked (ex. ASIC-application specific
integrated circuit)
o Non-masked (ex. FPGA, CPLDs)
§
(L) is
known as programmable devices
o Std. Parts (Pentium, DSP, Decoder, mux)
NRE – no recurring engineering –initial cost
FPGA
NRE ASIC
Volume
Break
Even
q A large view of digital HW
ARCHITECTURE
Sub System Gate/ =>chips Module Gate Front end Back End Transistor or CKT Layout
q Design methodologies in dealing with complexity
o Hierarchical approach
o Reuse based approach
o IP-based – intellectual property also called core or maga-cell
q Contemporary digital HW design flow
Design Entry Prototyping
q HDL(VHDL, verilog, etc) tasks
o For better documentation
o Description-> design, modeling
o Verification -> simulation
o Synthesizer – doesn’t belong to HDL but it’s almost
§ Generate net list
§ Optimizing design
Related EDA Tools
q HDL-Compiler or interpreter
o Vendors
§ Synopses (VHDL, Verilog)
§ Model Tech (VHDL, Verilog)
§ Model Sim
§ Cadence (verilog only)
§ NC Verilog XL
q Synthesis Tool
o Synosy (ASIC)
o Synplicity (FGPA)