Defining a Good RTL Design Hierarchy - 2023.1 English

UltraFast Design Methodology Guide for FPGAs and SoCs (UG949)

Document ID
UG949
Release Date
2023-06-07
Version
2023.1 English

The first step in design creation is to decide how to partition the design logically. The main factor when considering hierarchy is to partition a part of the design that contains a specific function. This allows a specific designer to design a piece of IP in isolation as well as isolating a piece of code for reuse.

However, defining a hierarchy based on functionality only does not take into account how to optimize for timing closure, runtime, and debugging. The following additional considerations made during hierarchy planning also help in timing closure.