VLSI Programmable Logic Devices

VLSI Programmable Logic Devices

·        Advantage of PLDs - can be programmed to incorporate a complex logic function within a single IC but at MSI or LSI level.

·        But for larger & more complex functions – VLSI is appropriate; it can contain thousands to millions of gates within a single IC chip.

·        Three ways of designing VLSI circuits:

1.        Full Custom Design

2.        Standard Cell Design

3.        Gate Array Design

·        Full Custom Design: Entire design of the chip, down to the smallest detail of the layout is performed

   Very expensive

   Suitable only for dense, fast ICs in bulk quantities

   Standard  Cell  Design:  Large  part  of  the  design  is  performed  ahead  of  time,  used  in previous designs. Pre-designed parts are connected to form IC design. Like hierarchical design procedure.

^ Intermediate cost

^ Lower density & lower performance than full custom

·        Gate Array Design: Pattern of gates fabricated in Silicon that is repeated thousands of times, so that the entire chip contains identical gates. It requires that the design specify how the gates are interconnected. Many steps of fabrication process are common and independent of final logic function. These steps are economical as they can be used for a number of different designs. Additional fabrication steps are required to interconnect the _ gates in order to customize the gate array to the particular design.

 New approaches of VLSI yield high capacity PLDs called Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs) or Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). These have the following

            properties:

1.        Substantial amounts of uncommitted combinational logic

2.        Pre-implemented flip-flops

3.        Programmable interconnections between the combinational logic, flip-flops, and the chip input/outputs

            Aside from these properties, VLSI PLDs differ significantly from vendor to vendor. Some are following:

              Altera MAX 7000 CPLDs based on EEPROM. It has: 

^·            16 identical logic array blocks, all of whose outputs fed into the programmable interconnect array that also receives inputs from the I/O control blocks. These I/O blocks control the input and output of the circuit.

^·            Each logic block contains 16 cells, each with a flip-flop in addition to basic PLD-like combinational logic structure.

^·            Some of the AND gates in the cell are used for flip-flop control, such as Preset, Clear, Clock, etc.

^·            Flip-flop itself can be programmed to act as a D, T, JK, or SR flip-flop. Xilinx XC4000 FPGA is implemented in an array of programmable blocks of logic called Configurable Logic Blocks (CLBs).

^·            Input to and output from the array is handled by Input/Output Blocks (IOBs) along the edges of the array.

·           IOBs & CLBs are interconnected by a variety of programmable interconnection structures called switch matrices.