Title : Automatic Transistor - Level Design and Layout of FPGAs

Executive Summary Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are becoming more prevalent in digital systems and are used to implement a wide range of applications – from telecommunications switching systems to wireless interfaces. This project investigates the feasibility of a tool to automate the process of producing the transistor-level layout of an FPGA. This will reduce the design cycle time while maintaining a comparable quality to layouts fully optimized by hand. We will extend an existing tool, Automated Transistor Layout (ATL), by improving its placement algorithm, designing a router, and developing a Graphical User Interface to visualize the proposed enhancements. This project takes ATL from cell placements without routing between them and defines the inter-cell routing and the intra-cell layout. Our work coincides with another project is further improving the cell placement algorithms. Table 1 contains a listing of the project milestones that were defined at the beginning of our project. The table provides a short description of each task, identifies the primary group member responsible for completing the module, and our initial estimates for the duration of each milestone. Over the course of the project's lifecycle, both the milestones and their durations were updated based on inaccurate estimates in the amount of effort and for unexpected difficulties. Table 2 lists the updated milestone schedule and contains information as to the final status for each of the milestones at the conclusion of the project. We have completed all of our original milestones, except for a module that automatically generates the intra-cell layout. The primary reason for abandoning this milestone was that preliminary estimates for the performance of an automated intra-cell layout engine would be significantly inferior to a hand-generated solution. Additionally, we have iv underestimated the total time taken to fulfill the non-technical requirements for the design project (i.e. presentations & reports).