Chapter 2
Register-Transfer Level Design
Logic synthesis works on register-transfer level (RTL) designs. What logic synthesis offers is an automated route from an RTL design to a gate-level design.
For this reason, it is important that the user of logic synthesis is familiar with RTL design to the extent that it is second nature. This chapter has been included because many designers have never used RTL design formally. This chapter serves as a simple introduction to RTL design for those readers not familiar with it. It is not meant to be a comprehensive study but it does touch on all the main issues that a designer encounters when using the method.
RTL is a medium-level design methodology that can be used for any digital system. Its use is not restricted to logic synthesis: it is equally useful for hand-crafted designs. It is an essential part of the top-down digital design process.
Register-transfer level design is a grand name for a simple concept. In RTL design, a circuit is described as a set of registers and a set of transfer functions describing the flow of data between the registers. The registers are implemented directly as flip-flops, whilst the transfer functions are implemented as blocks of combinational logic.
This division of the design into registers and transfer functions is an important part of the design process and is the main objective of the hardware designer using synthesis. The synthesis style of VHDL has a direct one-to-one relationship with the registers ...
