The characteristics and development trend of EDA technology

Characteristics and Development Trends of EDA Technology

EDA is the abbreviation of Electronic Design Automation (Electronic Design Automation). The following is my compilation of the characteristics and development trends of EDA technology, welcome to your reference!

Through the introduction of EDA technology features, the development process, and EDA technology as a means of development, programmable devices as the core greatly simplifies the design task and describes the EDA in today's electronic technology plays a role in the field of EDA technology, comparing the EDA technology and the traditional electronic design method of the difference between the wobble summed up the advantages of the EDA technology and development trends.

1 Introduction

EDA is an acronym for Electronic Design Automation. It is a new technology is developing at a high speed, is a large-scale programmable logic devices for the design of the carrier to the hardware description language for the system logic description of the main expression, to the computer, large-scale programmable logic device development software and experimental development system as a design tool, through the development of software, software, automated design of electronic systems to the hardware system in a software way a new technology. Logic compilation, logic simplification, logic partition, logic synthesis and optimization, logic layout and wiring, logic simulation can be achieved. It is also possible to complete the compilation, logic mapping, and programming downloads for specific target chips, and ultimately form an integrated electronic system or a dedicated integrated chip.

2 EDA technology concepts and basic features

EDA technology is accompanied by the development of computers, integrated circuits, electronic system design has been more than 30 years of history, can be roughly divided into three stages of development, the 1970s, CAD (computer-aided design) stage: this stage of the main feature is the use of computer-aided design (CAD) stage. The main feature is the use of computer-aided circuit schematic editing, PCB wiring, so that designers from the traditional highly repetitive and complicated drawing labor freed from the 1980s CAED (computer-aided engineering design) stage: the main feature of this stage is to logic simulation, timing analysis, fault simulation, automatic layout and wiring as the core, with a focus on solving the functionality of the circuit design testing and other issues, so that the design can be used in the production of products, and the design of the circuit is not only to solve the problem of the design of the circuit, but also to solve the problems of the design of the circuit. The 1990s is the EDA (Electronic Design Automation) stage: the main feature of this stage is characterized by high-level description language, system simulation and synthesis technology, adopting a top-down approach. Top-down? The design concept, the design of the pre-design of many high-level design by the EDA tool to complete. EDA is electronic technology design automation is also able to help people design electronic circuits or systems software tools. The tool can play a role in all stages of designing electronic products, making it possible to design more complex . Circuits and systems possible. In the schematic design stage, simulation tools in EDA can be used to demonstrate the correctness of the design. In the chip design phase. Chip design tools in EDA can be used to design and create the layout of the chip. In the board design stage, you can use EDA board design tools to design multilayer boards. In particular, the emergence of EDA tools to support hardware description language to automate the design of complex digital systems possible as long as the behavior of the digital system with a hardware description language to describe the correct, you can carry out the digital system chip design and manufacturing.

EDA represents the latest development of today's electronic design technology, the use of EDA tools electronic designers can start from the concept, algorithms, protocols, and so on, to design the electronic system a lot of work can be done through the computer, and electronic products can be designed from the circuit design, performance analysis, to the design of the IC layout or PCB layout of the entire process in the computer to automatically deal with the completion. The design methodology used by the designer is a high-level ? Top-down? The new design method, this design method first from the system design, in the top level of the functional block diagram division and structural design. At the block diagram level, simulation and error correction are performed. And the high-level system behavior is described by hardware description language, and the driving license is entered at the system level; then the network table of specific gate circuits is generated by the synthesis and optimization tool, and its corresponding physical realization level can be a printed circuit board or a special-purpose integrated circuit. The designer's work is limited to the use of software, i.e., hardware description languages and EDA software to accomplish the implementation of the system's hardware functions. With the main simulation and debugging process of the design being done at a high level, this facilitates the early detection of structural design errors and avoids wasted design efforts, while reducing the workload of logic function simulation and improving the one-time success rate of the design. With the increasing complexity and integration of modern electronic products, the general combination of small and medium-sized integrated circuits can not meet the requirements of the circuit design gradually from small and medium-sized chips to large-scale, ultra-large-scale chips, with high speed, high integration, low-power programmable devices have been developed vigorously.

Hardware Description Language (HDL) is a high-level computer language used for hardware design of electronic systems, which uses the software design method to describe the logical function of the electronic system, circuit structure and connection form. Hardware description language is an important part of EDA technology, EDA design and development is a very important software tools. vHDL is ultra-high-speed integrated circuits hardware description language is used as the electronic design of mainstream hardware description language. It has a strong circuit description and modeling capabilities, from multiple levels of modeling and description of digital systems to greatly simplify the hardware design task, improve the reliability of the design, with VHDL for the design of electronic systems, a great advantage is that the designer can concentrate on the implementation of its functions and do not need to do not affect the function of the process-related factors to spend too much time and energy. Hardware description languages can describe circuits at three levels, which are, from highest to lowest, behavioral, several levels, and gate circuit levels. The application of VHDL for electronic system design has the following advantages: (1) VHDL's wide range of descriptive capabilities make it the core of high-level design, raising the designer's focus to the realization of system functions and debugging only need to spend less effort on physical implementation. (2) VHDL can use concise and clear code description for the design of complex control logic, flexible and convenient, but also easy to communicate, save and reuse the design results. (3)The design of VHDL does not depend on specific devices, which facilitates process conversion. (4) VHDL is a standardized language supported by many EDA vendors, so portability is good.

Comparison of EDA technology and traditional electronic design methods can be seen, the traditional digital system design can only be designed on the circuit board is a building block approach, so that the design of complex circuits, debugging is very difficult; if there is an error in a certain process to find and modify the very inconvenient; for integrated circuit design design to realize the process is directly related to the specific production process, therefore, poor portability; only the VHDL is a standard language, supported by many EDA vendors. Poor portability; only in the design of the prototype or production of the chip can be realized, and thus the development of products with a long cycle. EDA technology is very different, the use of programmable devices, through the design of the chip to realize the system function. Using hardware description language as design input and the introduction of libraries, the designer defines the internal logic and pins of the device, and most of the work originally done by the circuit board design is changed to be carried out in the design of the chip. Due to the flexibility of pin definition, it greatly reduces the workload and difficulty of circuit diagram design and circuit board design, effectively enhances the flexibility of design, and improves work efficiency. And can reduce the number of chips, reduce the size of the system, reduce energy consumption, improve the performance and reliability of the system. It can utilize the computer to automatically design, simulate and debug in an all-round way.

3 EDA technology applications and development trends

EDA technology is developing rapidly and gradually in the teaching, scientific research, product design and manufacturing and other aspects play a huge role.

In terms of teaching: Almost all the science and technology (especially electronic information) class of colleges and universities have opened the EDA course. Mainly for students to understand the basic principles and basic concepts of EDA, master the method of describing the system logic with VHDL, the use of EDA tools for electronic circuits course analog simulation experiments. Such as experimental teaching, course design, graduation design, design competitions, etc. can be CPLD/FPGA devices, so that the experimental equipment or design of electronic systems with high reliability, but also economic, fast, easy to realize, modify the convenience of the same time can greatly improve the students' hands-on practical ability, innovation and computer application skills.

In terms of scientific research: the main use of circuit simulation tools for circuit design and simulation; the use of virtual instrumentation for product debugging; the development of CPLD/FPGA devices applied to the instrumentation, CPLD/FPGA can be directly applied to small batch of products in the chip or as a large number of products as a chip pre-development. Upgrading and technological transformation of traditional electromechanical products, the application of CPLD/FPGA can improve the performance of traditional products to reduce the volume, improve the technical content and added value of products. As a higher education students and the majority of electronic engineers to understand and master this advanced technology is imperative, which is not only to improve the design efficiency needs. It is the need to improve the design efficiency, but also the needs of the times, only mastered the EDA technology to have the ability to participate in the world electronics industry market competition for survival and development. With the progress of science and technology, the update of electronic products is changing rapidly, EDA technology as the source of electronic product development and development of power, has become the core of modern electronic design. Therefore, the development of EDA technology will be a major technological revolution in the field of electronic design and electronics industry, but also on the teaching of electrical courses and scientific research has put forward deeper and higher requirements.

In product design and manufacturing: from high-performance microprocessors, digital signal processors have been to color TV, audio and electronic toy circuits, etc., EDA technology is not only used in the pre-computer simulation simulation, product debugging, but also in the production of PCBs, the development and production of electronic equipment, circuit boards, soldering, the production process, and so on, has an important role. It can be said that EDA technology has become an indispensable technical support in the field of electronics industry.

Into the 21st century, electronic technology into the field of EDA, EDA makes the boundaries of the various disciplines in the field of electronics is more fuzzy, more inclusive of each other, highlighted in the following aspects: so that the results of the electronic design of independent intellectual property rights to be clearly expressed and confirmed that it has become possible; based on the EDA tools ASIC design standard unit has been covered by the large-scale electronic system and the IP core modules; hardware and software. IP core module; hardware and software IP core in the electronics industry industry, technology and design applications have been further confirmed; soC (System-on-Chip) efficient low-cost design technology maturity. With the rapid development of semiconductor technology, integration technology and computer technology, the design methodology and design means of electronic systems have undergone great changes. The traditional ? Fixed-function integrated block ten line? The design method is gradually out of the historical stage and chip-based design method is becoming the mainstream of modern electronic system design.

4 Conclusion

EDA technology is a revolution in the field of electronic design, is currently in a high-speed development stage, every year there are new EDA tools, China's EDA technology application level has long lagged behind the developed countries, therefore, as an electronic hardware engineers, universities and colleges, electronics students or electronic enthusiasts, must master EDA technology! For CPLD/FPGA development, the only way to keep up with modern technology to adapt to the environment of fierce competition.