EDA software assists the designer in every step of the design process and every design step is accompanied by heavy test phases.
To minimize the risk of any design mistakes, the design flow is heavily automatized. Since a single VLSI mask set can cost up to 10-100 millions, trial and error approaches are not economically viable. In the case of integrated circuits (ICs) for example, a single chip may contain today more than 20 billion transistors (which is more than two transistors for every human on Earth) and, as a general rule, every single transistor in a chip must work as intended. Similarly, a tool for schematic-capture and analog simulation can generally be used both for IC analog design and for PCB design. For example, a program for high-level digital synthesis can usually be used both for IC digital design as well as for programming an FPGA. For FPGAs the low-level description consists of a binary file to be flashed into the gate array, while for an integrated circuit the low-level description consists of a layout file which describes the masks to be used for lithography inside a foundry.Įach design step requires specialized tools, and many of these tools can be used for designing multiple types of electronic circuits. The design of each of these electronic devices generally proceeds from a high- to a low-level of abstraction. These circuits can contain a combination of transistors, resistors, capacitors or specialized components such as analog neural networks, antennas or fuses. Integrated circuits may consist of a combination of digital and analog circuits.
Electronic devices may consist of integrated circuits (ICs), printed circuit boards (PCBs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or a combination of them.
Modern electronic devices are too complex to be designed without the help of a computer. This page is a comparison of electronic design automation (EDA) software which is used today to design the near totality of electronic devices.
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