IC Design Flow · Topic 4 of 9
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IC Design FlowLesson 4 of 9
Synthesis
Translating RTL into a gate-level netlist of standard cells.
What you’ll learn
- What logic synthesis does
- Constraints and optimisation
- What a netlist is
Why it matters
Synthesis turns human-readable RTL into the actual gates that will be built.
Explanation
A synthesis tool compiles RTL into a netlist of standard cells, optimising for timing, area, and power under designer-supplied constraints (clock speed, etc.). It's the hardware analogue of a software compiler.
The result is a gate-level description ready for physical implementation.
Visual explanation
Key terminology
- Netlist
- A list of cells and their connections.
- Constraints
- Targets like clock period the tool must meet.
- Synthesis
- RTL-to-gates compilation.
Example
Tightening the clock constraint makes synthesis use faster (larger) cells.
Common mistakes
Watch out for:
- Ignoring constraints — unconstrained synthesis produces meaningless timing.
Real-world application
Synthesis quality strongly affects the final chip's speed and power.
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Synthesis
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Verification
IC Design Flow
Proving the design does what it's supposed to — before it's built.
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