suggestion on IC front-end design

[wilfwolf]

Hi,everyone,
I'm a student to be graduated soon and planning to engaged in IC front-end design. I've leaned digital design and some common EDA tools, but still don't feel
confident enough to the coming challenge. If I want to do good job on this field, what knowledge and skills should I have ? Are there any experienced engineer give me any instructions?

 

[tybhsl]

if you are fimialiar with such eda tools as active-hdl, modelsim, ISE, design compiler ,you can download some code and read them. It is very helpful. You can find them on opencores. Good luck!

 

[tybhs]

I have the same question as above. Who can give me some practical advice? Thanks!

 

[hahaguy2]

Just pratice your interviewing skill You can learn more about technical when you go into the industry

 

[arunragavan]

well.. there is no trainin when it comes to eda industry.. you have to have good exposure to basic tools.. u have to be good in scripting.. somethin like the TCL.. that is the basics to be good and survive n design industry.

please do enlighten me..

with regards,

 

[wilfwolf]

Yes I'm quite familiar with those tools, such as modelsim, NC-verilog,ISE, DC,PT,and so on, but tools can not do anything for you. I believe there are many skills that I need to have, such as from system to algorithm, from algorithm to implementation,and other fundamental knowledge. As to a specific project, how I walk through all tha path?

 

[spauls]

Read book ASIC by Smith.

 

[kctang]

My opinion is you should try to read some books & example codes for design reuse & DFT. This is very vital when you've to work with your colleagues and know how to write good code to be able to being debug and and can be integrated with others' module.

ASIC design is team work, managible code & scripts are vital.

 

[ymli]

Genrally, only when you are in the industry you will find what are useful for you. In my opinion, the most important is how to manage a project and how to communicate with the other guys.

 

[optor]

Genrally, only when you are in the industry you will find what are useful for you. In my opinion, the most important is how to manage a project and how to communicate with the other guys.

Yeah, that's the most important.

 

[moorhuhn]

Well, I would suggest you try to start at the small company. In my opinion you should have an opportunity to be somehow engaged in all parts of the flow. I mean from the specification through the front end ,through the testability, backend, assembly, device test and production yield tuning. You just need to talk to the engineers and to understand the daily problems they have. After that you will keep it in mind when you write your front end code. I know it is a long term program, but there are now to many front end designer who are writing and synthesizing a correct code, which makes troubles in the next stages of the design. If you are lucky, you will get a good mentor during your first project. Maybe the best start is to be engaged in the analyze and debug of the chip which does not work properly.
I have not mentioned the good unix knowledge, programming skills in shell, awk,
tcl and maybe perl.

 

[smith_kang]

hi all
for digital front end you should be very good in your digital fundamentals.EDA tools definitely improvr your skill but what is more important is Basic knowledge of digital system.So be familiar with digital including timing issues of every block.
tools like Active-HDL,ModelSim,Altera MAX PLUS,XILINX will help you.

 

[crazy_man]

If u r looking at taking up IC front end design, u should be knowing languages like VHDL, Verilog, SystemC etc..

Tools like design compiler ,active-hdl, modelsim, ISE etc would keep u in good stead..

It would also be nice if u know scripting languages like TCL, Perl etc.. since a whole lot of automation is to be done...

 

[tongson]

I suggest u should learn about hardware knowledge, and think about the principle about circuit working. Good Luck!!!

 

[ken_80]

I think you'd better first learn the HDL languge and then do a real design from begin to end.So that you can find out which knowledge you are short of and you'll be able to read books about them.

Added after 28 minutes:

I give you a book about verilog design in real world!

 

[bluebyte]

Hi,everyone,
I'm a student to be graduated soon and planning to engaged in IC front-end design. I've leaned digital design and some common EDA tools, but still don't feel
confident enough to the coming challenge. If I want to do good job on this field, what knowledge and skills should I have ? Are there any experienced engineer give me any instructions?

you should have some knowledge on the target system,such as computer architecture, communication algorithm,..., which depends on the characteristics of your future work.

 

[zhanch]

Yes I'm quite familiar with those tools, such as modelsim, NC-verilog,ISE, DC,PT,and so on, but tools can not do anything for you. I believe there are many skills that I need to have, such as from system to algorithm, from algorithm to implementation,and other fundamental knowledge. As to a specific project, how I walk through all tha path?

only familiar with EDA tools is not enough. You cannt get any pratical experience from books. Books only can tell you the right direction. Nobody can be an expert when he first come to a field. You must increase ur pratical experience from the industrial projects. anyway, Rome wasn't built in a day

 

[firendchn]

Nobody can be an expert when he first come to a field. You must increase ur pratical experience from the industrial projects. anyway, Rome wasn't built in a day

I agree with u!

 

[beowulf]

One of the better books for RTL design using Verilog is Advanced Digital Design with Verilog HDL by Michael Ciletti, this has some basic examples and also pretty good advanced level stuff
Also take a look at
h**p://www.ece.ncsu.edu/asic/2003/web520_03.htm
Dr. Franzon's webpage for good slides on Verilog design and synthesis. These are three lectures in all.
Start with designing very basic stuff, difference btn' latch and FF in verilog code (a very common question but still very imp) and read on what kind of veriloog constructs synthesize to what circuits for eg: a case statement synthesizes to a mux but how are default statements and dont cares taken care of etc.

IMP: It is not enough to know RTL alone. You should have a good knowledge of the circuit level also, maybe not at the expert level but the basics should be well read. I would recommend the book CMOS VLSI Design A systems perspective 3rd Edition, the new edition is really very good. I have attached an important chapter from this edition which covers the basics of Sequential design very well.

Another weapon is Perl/Tcl which is a must learn, try generating automatic test patterns using Perl first for FF/counters etc and then for other circuits. Here you will be using Perl to create a Verilog/VHDL testbench.

It is more important to be a Digital Designer than a Verilog/VHDL coder.

Hope this helps...
Beowulf

 

[gaonkc]

you should familar with gate level circuit. timing analysis, <<hdl chip design>> is a good book for you