Behavioral synthesis of analog systems using two-layered design space exploration

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach for synthesis of analog systems from behavioral VHDL-AMS specifications. We implemented this approach in the VASE behavioral-synthesis tool. The synthesis process produces a netlist of electronic components that are selected from a component library and sized such that the overall area is minimized and the rest of the performance constraints such as power, slew-rate, bandwidth, etc. are met. The gap between system level specifications and implementations is bridged using a hierarchically-organized, design-space exploration methodology. Our methodology performs a two-layered synthesis, the first being architecture generation, and the other component synthesis and constraint transformation. For architecture generation we suggest a branch-and-bound algorithm, while component synthesis and constraint transformation use a Genetic Algorithm based heuristic method. Crucial to the success of our exploration methodology is a fast and accurate performance estimation engine that embeds technology process parameters, SPICE models for basic circuits and performance composition equations. We present a telecommunication application as an example to illustrate our synthesis methodology, and show that constraint-satisfying designs can be synthesized in a short time and with a reduced designer effort.

Towards a specification notation for high-level synthesis of mixed-signal and analog systems

“…The soundness of the notation semantics was achieved by basing it on a computational model for mixedsignal systems. The analog component of aBlox already serves as a specification notation for our existing top-down synthesis methodology [5]. The research described in the paper is also important because it identifies situations for which functionality can be moved across the analog and digital domains so that semantics of the resulting systems is the same.…”

“…Keeping similarity between analog and digital specifications is important for re-targetable mixed-signal synthesis. Effective synthesis algorithms can be formulated for SFG-s [5]. SFG blocks suggest the structure of a system and they are easily mappable to electronic circuits as they represent operations i.e.…”

Formal verification of synthesized mixed signal designs using *BMDs

“…We have presented a novel approach to verification of synthesized mixed signal designs using *BMDs which provide efficient representation and symbolic manipulation techniques under our synthesis framework VASE [9]. We have attempted verification in a synthesis environment, although the approach is not handicapped by such a requirement.…”

“…There has been effort on part of researchers [9] to use a subset of this specification language for synthesis purposes. The idea here is to give the user ability to specify a wide range of analog behaviors and retain the ease of transformation of the language constructs into analog circuit.…”

A methodology for rapid prototyping of analog systems

“…The VHDL-AMS Synthesis Environment (VASE) being developed at the University of Cincinnati performs synthesis of analog designs from specifications in VHDL-AMS [1]. Rapid prototyping of these designs using fieldprogrammable analog arrays (FPAAs) enables rapid evaluation and validation of the designs.…”