FPGA Design Automation: A Survey

Author(s): Deming Chen;Jason Cong;Peichen Pan

Source:
    Journal:Foundations and Trends® in Econometrics
    ISSN Print:1551-3076,  ISSN Online:1551-3084
    Publisher:Now Publishers
    Volume 1 Number 3,

Document Type: Article
Pages: 139(195-334)
DOI: 10.1561/1000000003

Abstract: Design automation or computer-aided design (CAD) for field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) has played a critical role in the rapid advancement and adoption of FPGA technology over the past two decades. The purpose of this paper is to meet the demand for an up-to-date comprehensive survey/tutorial for FPGA design automation, with an emphasis on the recent developments within the past 5-10 years. The paper focuses on the theory and techniques that have been, or most likely will be, reduced to practice. It covers all major steps in FPGA design flow which includes: routing and placement, circuit clustering, technology mapping and architecture-specific optimization, physical synthesis, RT-level and behavior-level synthesis, and power optimization. We hope that this paper can be used both as a guide for beginners who are embarking on research in this relatively young yet exciting area, and a useful reference for established researchers in this field.

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