Behavioral Compiler Tutorial
Revision 2001.01
Use the Netscape browser to open and view this tutorial.
This tutorial is an introduction to the Synopsys Behavioral
Compiler. It shows you the advantages of technology-independent and
architecture-independent behavioral designing methodology and
- How to start and use Behavioral Compiler
- How to use BCView to graphically analyze a design
- How to code for synthesis
- How to simulate a design for pre-synthesis and post-synthesis
verification
The estimated completion time for the tutorial is 1 to 3 hours. After
completing this introduction to Behavioral Compiler, you can take the
Synopsys 3 or 4 day class to learn about behavioral synthesis in greater
depth.
Two excellent reference books on behavioral synthesis are the following:
- Understanding Behavioral Synthesis, A Practical Guide
to High Level Design by John P Elliott;
Kluwer Academic Publishers
ISBN 0-7923-8542-X
- Behavioral Synthesis,
Digital System Design Using the Synopsys Behavioral Compiler by
David W. Knapp,
Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-569252-0
Optimal Use of the Tutorial
For optimal use of the tutorial, display the tutorial and run Behavioral
Compiler on the same UNIX workstation. This gives you the advantage of
copying and pasting examples and commands from the tutorial into the
Behavioral Compiler command line interface (bc_shell).
Downloading the Tutorials
Copy the tutorial files into your workstation. Assuming you copied the
tutorial files in your home directory, the structure is similar to the
following:

Accessing the Tutorials
After you copy the tutorial files into your workstation, use the Netscape
File > Open Page command to browse for the
bc_tutorial/tutorial/tutorial.html file, or enter the following in the
Location field:
file:///+path_to_your+/bc_tutorial/tutorial/tutorial.html
where ///+path_to_your+ is 2 forward slash
characters followed by the absolute path (including its leading slash
character for a total of 3 slashes) to the location of your bc_tutorial
directory. For example:
file:///remote/dtg101/khampton/bc_tutorial/tutorial/tutorial.html
Accessing the Lab Material
To access the lab material, change to the synthesis, coding, or simulation
directory in the bc_tutorial directory, for example
cd /bc_tutorial/synthesis
Each lab directory contains a Verilog version and a VHDL version of the lab
so you can work with either HDL language.
Execute the labs in the following order:
- Synthesis (Chapter 2)
- Coding (Chapter 3)
- Simulation (Chapter 4)
Starting the Tutorial
Click on the link below to go to Chapter 1 or any of the other chapters in
this tutorial
Chapter1 - Getting Started
Chapter2 - Synthesis with Verilog
Chapter2v - Synthesis with VHDL
Chapter3 - Coding for Synthesis with Verilog
Chapter3v - Coding for Synthesis with VHDL
Chapter4 - Simulation
Chapter5 - Some Final Thoughts