RTL coding (Verilog or VHDL)
Synthesis
Floorplanning/PowerPlanning
Placement
Clock routing
Routing
Physical Verification(LVS/DRC)
RTL Coding+ Synthesis ------> Front End
Synthesis+ Floorplanning to Physical Verification -------- Backend
Synthesis can be a part of front end or Backend which can be carried out by either frontend engineer or Backend engineer.
RTL coding engineer called frontend engineer
Reminaing steps who carry out called Physical design Engineer or Backend Engineer.
In short , The Front End starts in the RTL design (VHDL or Verilog), and includes Functional Verification (Simulation, Formal Verification, etc), and in some cases Logical Synthesis which can also be a part of the Back End flow!
---------- Post added at 11:13 ---------- Previous post was at 11:12 ----------
the tools used are
• Simulators: VCS, VCS-MX, IUS (NC), ModelSim
• Synthesis: RTL Compiler (RC), Exemplar Leonardo
• Coverage: VCS Coverage Metrics
Equivalence Checking:
• STA CeltIC
• FPGA Xilinx, Altera and Actel
---------- Post added at 11:14 ---------- Previous post was at 11:13 ----------
In today ASIC industry the design is portioned into front end and back end as explained below.
Front end:
Enter the design in one standard format (which EDA tools can understand)
Analyzing the requirements and high level design (identifying various blocks in design)
RTL design evolving the necessary micro architecture for the each block
VHDL, Verilog, other HDLs, Netlist etc.
Developing necessary techbenches for functional verification.
Simulation and model verification using standard simulators
Integration of all the blocks and top level simulation.
Back end:
Synthesizing the design, fixing any bugs (if any part of code is not synthesizable)
Floor planning as the targeted silicon area
Invoking the ASIC back end tools (Mapping extracted Netlist cells to technology specific cells)
Place and root as per the required timing and clock constraints
Extraction of models from synthesis outputs
Timing simulation and functional verification
Sending the design to the FAB and getting the chip manufactured.