Netlist
A netlist is nothing but a textual description of a circuit made of components in VLSI design. Netlists are connectivity information and provide nothing more than instances, nets, and perhaps some attributes. They are usually considered to be hardware description languages such as Verilog, VHDL, or any one of several specific languages designed for input to simulators.
Even before doing any physical work on the PCB, netlists are quite beneficial during the testing process. Engineers can use them to run these checks and find any erroneous or missing connections. Additionally, nodes, instances, and possibly even specific features of the components involved are provided through netlists.
Components of Netlist
- Gates.
- Resistors.
- Capacitors.
- Transistors.
The popular languages used to write a netlist are
- VHDL.
- Verilog.
- EDIF.
What is RTL and netlist?
The functionality of a device described in a hardware description language such as Verilog or VHDL is commonly referred to as RTL (Register Transfer Level). RTL describes the behavior of the digital circuit in terms of data transfers between registers. When RTL code is synthesized, it is converted into a gate-level description, which represents the circuit using logic gates such as AND, OR, and NOT gates. This gate-level description is often referred to as a netlist, which provides a detailed representation of how the circuit is implemented at the logic gate level.