Digital Implementation Education Kit is Ready for Download!

What is the difference between analog and digital EDA tools for backend implementation? While analog designers could theoretically do polygon pushing to place single devices and draw the routing manually, it is very cumbersome and ineffective work, and a digital designer is completely lost without EDA tools, which synthesize, place, and route millions of instances. Therefore, it is important for digital implementation engineers to master the EDA tools needed to complete the digital flow. The digital flow is quite complex, several tools are needed for the stages of implementation and verification of different aspects of the design. A modern design flow can be roughly divided into the following stages:

A designer should also have some understanding of what the engines of the tools they’re using look like. Having an understanding of the algorithms that are powering the tools can help set expectations for the capabilities of the tools.

The Digital Implementation Education Kit consists of 18 modules, which covers all aspects of digital implementation. You’ll review RTL coding and simulation, with a main focus is on digital backend. The lectures explain the algorithms behind the tools, while the labs allow students to get practical experience running the tools on real life designs.

For the complete syllabus, please review the Digital Implementation Education Kit. All software tools required for the practical part are available through the Cadence University Program. To become a member of the Cadence University Program, please write to universityprogram@cadence.com for assistance.

The Digital Implementation Education Kit is intended for students who have a basic understanding of digital design, Verilog and standard cells. All provided materials are editable and can be easily adapted for the educators’ needs.

This kit would not be possible without help from various academic contributors. Cadence would like to thank them for their invaluable contributions in the development of the Digital Implementation Kit: UCSD professor Andrew Kahng and his team; Lebanon International University professor Adnan Harb and his team; and National Taiwan University professor Jie-Hong Roland Jiang.