To learn digital IC design you need to know concepts of digital logic circuit and computer architecture. In the synthesis course you will learn about different algorithms which are used to synthesis a VHDL/Verilog code. I recommend you study the following Ebook. If you can not access it anywhere, let me know to send it to you:
"eBook-VHDL-A Guide To Digital Design And Synthesis(2003)".
At the of course, you could specify the correspodence hardware of a sample code.
Also, if you want to learn more about synthesis, you need to know Graph Theory in details. The following book is the best for you to study more about algorithms:
"Introduction to Algorithms ( MIT Press 2nd Edition)"
Let me know, if you don't access it. I will send it to you.
Regards,
KH