Introduction to Logic Synthesis
Six pages already shipped on this site quietly assume something they never explain: that RTL somehow becomes a gate-level netlist. Verilog's own…
The Synthesis Flow
RTL goes in; a gate-level netlist comes out. Between those two points, a real synthesis tool runs through four distinct phases, each producing a…
Standard Cell Libraries
The Synthesis Flow's technology mapping step needs something concrete to map onto — real, physically fabricable logic gates with known electrical…
Technology-Independent Optimization
The Synthesis Flow named this as the step where the actual logic minimization happens — after elaboration, before any real cell exists. This page covers…
Technology Mapping
Technology-Independent Optimization produced a compact, multi-level network of generic AND/OR/NOT gates — still entirely abstract, with no relationship to…
Authoring SDC Constraints
Timing Verification and STA already covered SDC from the checking side — "written once, as an SDC file, and used by both synthesis and STA... the same…
Timing-Driven Synthesis
Authoring SDC Constraints established what goes into the constraint file. This page covers what actually happens once a synthesis tool reads it — the…
PPA Tradeoffs
Every optimization decision across Sections A and B has been in service of three goals that genuinely pull against each other: Power, Performance, and…
Clock Gating
PPA Tradeoffs named switching-power reduction as one of the three pulls every synthesis run balances. Clock gating is the single most common technique for…
Synthesis Outputs and Handoff
Every technique across this topic ends the same way: a synthesis run finishes and produces a specific set of real files. This page covers exactly what…
Example Walkthrough: Synthesizing a PWM Reg
This capstone is the third time this exact DUT has been the subject of a capstone on this site — UVM's RAL section built a register model for it, UPF's…