Notes for Higher Performance FPGA Design - Notes for Higher Performance FPGA Design - 2026.1 English - UG1483

If you focus all optimization efforts on back-end implementation tools, you can fail to achieve timing closure for the following reasons:

• The more complex IP blocks in a Model Composer design like FIR Compiler and FFT are generated 'under the hood'. These are highly-optimized netlists for the synthesis and implementation tools, so further optimization might not be possible.
• Model Composer netlisting produces HDL code with many instantiated primitives such as registers, block RAMs, and DSP48E1s. There is not much a synthesis tool can do to optimize these elements.

The following tips focus on what you can do in Model Composer to increase your design's performance before starting the implementation process:

• Review the Hardware Notes Included with Each Block Dialog Box
• Register the Inputs and Outputs of Your Design
• Insert Pipeline Registers
• Use Saturation Arithmetic and Rounding Only When Necessary
• Set the Data Rate Option on All Gateway Blocks
• Pipeline for Maximum Performance
• Other Things to Try