LSI design flow and EDA

Which design approach has people design each transistor's dimensions and placement to push performance and area to the limit?

  1. AAutomated place and route with standard cells
  2. BProgramming an FPGA
  3. CFull-custom design
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Answer: C. Full-custom design

In full-custom design, designers directly craft transistor sizes and layouts to maximize speed and minimize area. Because it is labor-intensive, it is used for critical processor blocks, memory cells, analog circuits and the like, while automated place and route dominates elsewhere.

  • A. The standard-cell approach automatically places and routes prepared cells.
  • B. An FPGA is a device programmed with circuits after manufacture.
  • C. Correct. People design the details by hand.
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More LSI design flow and EDA questions

  1. Which approach prefabricates a common base (master) covered with transistors and designs and manufactures only the wiring layers for each product?
  2. In verification using SystemVerilog, which standard methodology is used to build reusable test environments (testbenches)?
  3. In layout verification, which check looks for electrical connection errors, such as inputs left floating (connected to nothing) or supplies shorted together?
  4. Which technique describes properties a design must satisfy (for example, "respond within 3 cycles of a request") and has them checked automatically during simulation or by formal verification?
  5. In low-power design, which standard format describes the "power intent", such as power domains, power shutoff and level shifters, separately from the circuit description?