ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the essential design steps needed in the digital hardware design flow for the low-power system-on-chip (SOC) design with detailed information about each step from the algorithm design to physical implementation. It provides a basic understanding of digital design flow. The chapter focuses on the hardware design portion of the SOC design. It begins with a standard library introduction, following by the detailed explanation of design flow, from functional design to physical implementation. Library files contain the cell macro module's detailed information needed in the design flow. The design flow can be separated as frontend and backend design. The frontend functional design covers system algorithm, register transformer layer (RTL) coding and verification, gate- level netlist generation and providing system constraints. The backend design, also known as physical design, covers physical implementation which transfers logic gate-level netlist to physical layout and satisfies the design constraints.
