RTL Design and Integration Course is of 5 months duration focused on enabling participant with RTL integration job role. Training focus will be on RTL coding using Verilog & VHDL, manual integration, developing the glue logic during integration, tool based integration, linting, CDC, UPF, Synthesis and STA.
VLSI Front end domain(Pre-synthesis flow) jobs can be classified in to multiple categories as RTL coding, RTL integration, and Functional verification. VLSI design flow is completely driven by design IP reuse, hence majority of jobs in front end design will be based on RTL integration, which involves integrating multiple IP’s in to SOC as per architecture requirements. RTL integration engineer requires good exposure to RTL coding, Design constraints, Digital design concepts, good coding guidelines and exposure to Synthesis and STA concepts.
Like any other job role in VLSI design flow, RTL integration is also a tool intensive job. RTL Integration course will provide the student with expertise on Synopsys Spyglass(Lint and CDC), Design compiler for Synthesis and Primetime for STA. Tools helps with quick turn around in time critical projects, where integration engineer is expected to release the design tag in short timelines. With growing design complexity and reducing timelines, it requires efficient techniques for RTL connectivity and developing the logic for various blocks integration. LINTING is a static analysis of the RTL code based on some set of rules and guidelines. When these rules or guidelines are broken, LINT tool flags errors or warnings, which need to be reviewed, fixed or waived by designer. This course discusses good amount of LINT rules and guidelines, which will enable audience to gain good design practices and perform LINTING if needed.
Course will also focus on Splyglass based CDC(Clock domain crossover) for the synchronisation of various signals moving across one clock domain to another. Course will focus on in-depth analysis of Lint and CDC checks with hands on integration project.
Similar to how we have multiple clocks in a System-On-Chip design we do have multiple power domains being used in modern SOCs for different reasons. Unified Power Format is IEEE standard developed by Accellera. This is used to ease the job of specifying, simulating and verifying the design with multiple power states and power islands. UPF is designed to specify power intent of a design at high level. UPF scripts mention the details of which power rails need to be connected to which IP, whether the register values need to be retained during power off, whether we need an isolation of design in case of power down and manages voltage levels shift as signals cross from one power domain to the other. In this course we discuss the need for multiple power domains, basics of UPF and some examples.
In today’s era, complex SoC chips are being realised using complex VLSI(EDA) tools, of which RTL2GDSII flow is being used extensively during any SoC manufacturing. This has enabled the realisation of very complex digital designs, which starts with design specification and modelling of design using HDL language. This high-level description of the design is mapped to its corresponding hardware using automation, known as “Synthesis,” without which it’s near to impossible to design very complex digital circuits.
VLSI Design Flow
- Specification
- RTL coding, lint checks
- RTL integration
- Connectivity checks
- Functional Verification
- Synthesis & STA
- Gate level simulations
- Power aware simulations
- Placement and Routing
- DFT
- Custom layout
- Post silicon validation
Project management and revision management training
- Revision Management
- IBM Clearcase
- Perforce
- GIT
- Project Management
- Detailed overview of project phases
- Significance of RTL integration in VLSI Design Flow
Advanced Digital Design
- Digital Design basics
- Combinational logic
- Sequential logic, FF, latch, counters
- Memories
- Setup time, Hold time, timing closure, fixing setup time and hold time violations
- STA basic concepts time, Hold time, timing closure, fixing setup time and hold time violations
- www.vlsiguru.com/digital-design-complete
Linux Training
- Shells
- File and directory management
- User administration
- Environment variables
- Commonly used commands
- Shell scripting basics
- SEd and AWK
- Revision management
- Makefiles
TCL Scripting
- Introduce TCL
- Why TCL?
- TCL Script Processing
- Understand TCL uses and strengths
- Writing simple TCL scripts
- TCL for VLSI scripting
- TCL : Main Features
- TCL in EDA
- TCL shell (tclsh)
- Working with TCL scripts (UNIX)
- TCL Interpreter in SoC Design Tools
- TCL Scripting for SoC Design
- TCL Commands
- Variables
- Substitution and Command Evaluation
- Operators
- Mathematical Functions
- Procedures
- Control flow : if, if-else, switch, for, foreach, while, break and continue
- string, string operations
- List, List manipulation
- Arrays, array methods
- Working with files
- Command line arguments
- Regular expressions
- Complete TCL Scripts
- TCL Packages
Verilog
- Detailed overview of all Verilog-2001 constructs
- Multiple hands on projects
- Pattern detector
- Synchronous and Asynchronous FIFO
- Interrupt controller
- SPI Controller
- Watchdog timer
- PISO and SIPO
- Vending machine
RTL Integration
- Overview of RTL Integration
- Manual RTL integration
- Need for Tool based Integration
- coreTools Basics
- Usage model for IP packaging
Usage model for IP integration
Linting
- Purpose of LINTING
- SpyGlass Lint Tool Flow
- Rules in SpyGlass Lint
Clock Domain Crossing
- CDC Basics
- CDC Analysis
Power Aware Design Techniques
- Introduction to Low Power
- Power Intent and UPF
- Special low power cells and requirements.
- Introduction to SpyGlass LP Static Check
RTL Synthesis
- Introduction to Synthesis
- Data Setup for DC
- Accessing Design and Library Objects
- Constraints: Reg-to-Reg and I/O Timing
- Constraints: Input Transition and Output Loading
- Constraints: Multiple Clocks and Exceptions
- Constraints: Complex Design Considerations
- Post-Synthesis Output Data
Logic Equivalence Checks (LEC)
- Basic concepts of Formal verification and LEC
- Input generation for LEC
- Hands on project
Hands on projects
- 2 Hands on projects based on complete RTL integration flow, CDC, Lint, Synthesis and STA
| Course | RTL Design and Integration Training |
|---|---|
| Duration | 5.5 months (Experienced engineers: 3.5 months without Verilog and Digital design training) |
| Next Batch | 20/March |
| Schedule | |
| Freshers | Full week course |
| Saturday & Sunday(8:30AM – 4:30PM India time. Monday to Friday(9:30AM to 12:30PM). | |
| Weekdays sessions will be focused on training on Verilog labs, Digital Design, Linux and TCL scripting. | |
| Working professionals | Saturday & Sunday(8:30AM – 4:30PM India time. Flexible timings for students attending online from US) |
| 8:30AM – 12:30PM (Theory session offered by trainer) | |
| 1PM – 4:30PM (Lab & tool based session guided by mentor). Students from US will get support in different time. | |
| Students will take the weekday tests and assignments from home. | |
| Students also get support on complete project flow during weekdays as well. | |
| New batch starts | Every 8 Weeks |
| Tools | Synopsys Splyglass, Design compiler, Primetime, Core tools, Formality |
| Mode of training | Classroom training at VLSIGuru Institute, ORR, Banaswadi |
| Online training using live training sessions | |
| Tool Access | Tool access for complete course duration |
| Batch Size | 10 |
| Assignments | 20 |
Do you offer support after course completion?
- Yes, Course fee also includes support for doubt clarification sessions even after course completion
- You have option to mail you queries
- Option to meet in person to clarify doubts
What are the Course Prerequisites?
- Digital design fundamentals
- Verilog coding basics
What if I miss few sessions during course?
- Each session of course is recorded, missed session videos will be shared
Course has started few weeks back, can I still join the course in between?
- Yes, You will have option to view the recorded videos of course for the sessions missed
- You will have option to repeat the course any time in next 1 year
- Course material on RTL Design, RTL Integration, CDC, Lint Checks, Synthesis and STA
- Multiple trainers each with 15+ years of rich experience of working on complex SOC backend flow in various technology from 45nm to 7nm
- Multiple trainers with exposure to all the industry standard flow starting from Synopsys and Magma
- Fee: INR 45,000 + GST
- Confirm your course enrolment by making 5,000 INR transfer to below account.
- Remaining fee can be paid in 2 instalments with gap of 1.5 months
