The primary objective of LPM is to enable technology-independent design, without
sacrificing efficiency. By using LPM, the designer is freed from deciding the target
technology until late in the design flow. All design entry and simulation tools remain
technology-independent and rely on the synthesis or fitting tools to efficiently map the
design to various technologies. Efficiency is guaranteed because the technology mapping is
handled by the technology vendors either during logic synthesis or fitting.
To be effective, LPM had to meet the following key criteria:
| Allow Technology-Independent Design Entry
The primary goal of LPM was to enable technology-independent design. Designers can work
with the LPM modules during design entry and verification without specifying the target
technology. |
| Allow Efficient Design Mapping
Technology-independent design typically means inefficient design. LPM allows designers to
use technology-independent design without sacrificing efficiency. The technology mapping
of LPM modules is specified by the technology-vendor, so that the most optimum solutions
are guaranteed. |
| Allow Tool-Independent Design Entry
Designers require the ability to migrate a design from one EDA vendor's tool to another.
Many designers, for example, use one vendor for logic synthesis and another vendor for
logic simulation. LPM enables designers to migrate designs between EDA vendors while
maintaining a high-level logic description of the functions. |
| Allow specification of a complete design
The LPM set of modules can completely specify the digital logic for any design. Any
function that is not included in the initial set of modules, can be created out of the
modules. |
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