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VLSI DESIGN AUTOMATION USING A HARDWARE PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

Manual design methods used successfully up to now for SSI and MSI parts are inadequate for logically complex and densely packed VLSI circuitry. Automating the design process has, therefore, become an essential goal of present-day practice. Hardware description languages form a useful front-end to the design-automation process which ultimately generates masks suitable for chip fabrication. AHPL has long been in use as a vehicle for the description of clock-mode digital systems. Supporting software packages include a simulator which allows the designer to debug his design at a functional level. A subsequent 3-stage compiler extracts global information contained in the original AHPL description to produce a comprehensive data-base. It then generates hardware specifications suitable for down-stream design and manufacturing activities. The SLA is an evolution of the PLA concept. Design with SLA's has the notable advantage of allowing hardware representation of functional and layout information, while sidestepping the costly and time-consuming placement and routing problem. This dissertation describes a methodology for translation to an SLA form of hardware realization from an AHPL description. The global information extracted from the AHPL data-base plays a prominent part in guiding the heuristic placement and routing algorithms.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/290569
Date January 1981
CreatorsNavabi, Zainalabedin, 1952-
ContributorsHill, Frederick J.
PublisherThe University of Arizona.
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic)
RightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

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