Choosing an effective embedded SoC ASIC design strategy

Sunit Bansal, Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
EETimes (12/13/2010 8:18 PM EST)

In large and complex system-0n-chip ASIC design, two of the most challenging tasks are those involving design closure, timing routing and power.

It is a tedious task to converge on timing and routing, owing to the limitations of design size and the memory-intensive calculations. Essentially, it is dependent on the design size that an EDA tool can handle.

In such cases, it is advisable to go for a hierarchical approach instead of a flat top. Generally, the blocks are demarcated on the basis of functionality, backward compatibility, third party IP etc.

This article details the difference in terms of runtimes, routing congestion, timing summary and utilization for a design that is done as hierarchical vs. the same design using the flat approach.

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