( ESNUG 454 Item 16 ) ------------------------------------------- [04/28/06]
From: Cem Karan <ckaran=user domain=arl.army.mil>
Subject: Starting from scratch, what tools would you choose to design in?
Hi John,
I'm in the position of having to setup a brand new tool chain to create an
ASIC for an embedded system we are designing. Here are my constraints:
- I must use VHDL as the design language.
- I am the entire hardware design/verification team.
- I am more concerned about power than speed. Thus, instead of
asking how much I can reduce the power and meet my timing
constraints, I'm asking how fast I can make it go given that
I have X power to play with.
Those constraints basically mean that I am more concerned about ease of use
and productivity than I am about cost, but cost is still a factor. I also
need to know just how far down the chain I really need to go. Right now,
my plan is go down to a netlist, hand that off to a vendor for P&R, and get
back a SPEF file so I can verify that our design will still work, but if
people have better ideas, I'm all ears. If I do go that route, I'm going
to need the following:
- A good VHDL simulator solution. One that makes it easy for me to
debug and is easy to use. I'm currently using ModelSim, but if
anyone knows of something that a lone engineer can use that is
better, I'm all ears.
- A good synthesis solution that is, yet again, easy to use, and that
can be constrained based on power rather than speed.
- A good simulator/test solution/equivalence checker/whatever that
can prove the output of the synthesis tool is the same as what I put
into it.
- A good simulator/test solution/equivalence checker/whatever that can
prove the SPEF files returned by the ASIC vendor is the same as
the VHDL that I put in.
If the tools are scriptable, then it would be nice if they ran any scripts
directly. If they don't have their own scripting language, then it would be
nice if I could interface with the tool via a separate language like Python.
I also have access to a large Linux cluster, if that helps any.
Any suggestions, thoughts, etc. are welcome!
- Cem Karan
US Army Research Laboratory Adelphi, MD
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