Your New "Superpower": See Through "Hand-Off Walls" for Implementation PPA Insights on Early-Stage RTL

By _Synopsys Blog

March 10, 2023

It’s not uncommon for register transfer level (RTL) designers to be unaware of how their chip design choices will impact power, performance, and area (PPA). But what if you could have these insights on hand early on? How would this change the way that you develop your RTL design? And what kind of impact could this have on the value of your product?

Traditionally, many RTL designers are far removed from the process of physical implementation. Once they’ve developed their module, they throw it over the wall to the implementation team for integration. It’s quite possible, however, that one particular set of algorithms or architectural approach might be better than another set of choices for the design’s PPA targets. By the time physical implementation engineers discover these impacts, it is often too late to make meaningful changes to the RTL. In addition, implementation reports offer little guidance to the RTL designer on how to improve the PPA bottlenecks.

Now, there’s a way for RTL designers to debug problems in a familiar environment and make impactful changes at the earliest stages of chip design. The integration of Synopsys RTL Architect physically aware RTL analysis, exploration, and optimization system with the market-leading Synopsys Verdi® automated debug system provides these insights in an environment that most RTL designers are very familiar with. Read on to learn more about how this tool integration gives you a new superpower.

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