Why do I need an RTL to GDS flow?

Do you use flows in your design process? Of course you do – everyone does, and they need to be constantly maintained and updated. As development teams grow and become distributed around the world, it can be hard to ensure that all team members are using, or even aware of, the well tried and trusted methodologies that have been developed within a company or within the industry as a whole. This is where standardized flows can help and can guide the usage of tools to obtain the best possible results based on the experience of the flow developer, methodology creators such as IP vendors and foundries and the internal company knowledge that adds domain specific expertise or custom tools.

Flows are an important aspect of the design process and this fundamentals course (Fundamentals of Using Flows to Build Predictability into the IC Design Process – 43 minutes) may provide you with some fodder for thought the next time a major change comes along.

It was developed by yours truly. The sponsor was Synopsys and they get to showcase their Lynx product, a product developed by their consulting arm which is spread across the globe. Many of their customers wanted to keep the flow in place after the completion of the engagement and so now it is fully productized and maintained, but at the same flexible enough to be able to handle custom tools, flows and methodologies.

Take a look and see if this is something that could benefit your team.

Brian Bailey – keeping you covered

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