CSE498V/598V
Computer-Aided Design of Digital Systems

Computer-Aided Design of Digital Systems is a senior/entry graduate level course intended to expose students to the fundamentals of CAD tools for the design and analysis of digital systems. With the most advanced CAD tools it is possible to design Systems-On-a-Chip (SOCs) featuring more than 100 million gates with device feature sizes of \le 0.18 \mu m. However, these tools are not "push-button" tools. In order to obtain optimum results it is crucial for a designer to understand the underlying algorithms. The course aims at introducing to students the theory and implementation behind commercial CAD tools so that they will be able to contribute to the development of such tools as well as be productive users of such tools. The main topics include basic algorithms for CAD, digital system modeling, timing and power analysis, logic/architectural synthesis, physical level design, and system level design.

Course Goals:

• To instill fundamental concepts in computer aided design of digital systems.
• To introduce basic optimization algorithms applicable to solving many CAD related problems.
• To expose students to CAD algorithms used in different stages of the digital system development.
• To provide students with experience in analyzing and developing CAD algorithms and in using CAD tools more productively.