Theory and verification of operator design methodology
Non-recurring-engineering (NRE) and time-to-market play an increasingly important role in the field of IC design. Meanwhile, with the continuous development of IC manufacturing technology, it is necessary to propose a novel design methodology to shorten design cycle and enhance design efficiency. In this paper, operator design methodology (ODM) is presented and an H.264 encoder is implemented as a verification. According to the flow of ODM, the register transfer level (RTL) design of H.264 encoder has been accomplished with 15 manmonths, which is lower than the average 19 man-months in the field of traditional application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design. Moreover, with the advantage of operator design library, the design has a comparable performance with other ASIC implementations. The obtained design can support a real-time video encoding of 720p at 60 frames per second or 1080p at 30 frames per second, working at 167 MHz with SMIC 0.13 mu m CMOS technology. These results provide good evidence for the practicability and efficiency of ODM.
operator design methodology h.264 encoder integrated circuit hardware