To run the top-level design with the lower-level netlist or third-party netlist, instantiate the lower-level as a black box by providing a description of the port in a lower-level to the Vivado tool. In the Setting a Bottom-Up Out-of-Context Flow, this is referred to as a stub file.
IMPORTANT: The port names provided to the Vivado tool and the port names in the netlist must match.
In VHDL, describe the ports with a component statement, as shown in the following code snippet:
component <name>
port (in1, in2 : in std_logic;
out1 : out std_logic);
end component;
Because Verilog does not have an equivalent of a component, use a wrapper file to communicate the ports to the Vivado tool. The wrapper file looks like a typical Verilog file, but contains only the ports list, as shown in the following code snippet:
module <name> (in1, in2, out1);
input in1, in2;
output out1;
endmodule