Glossary comparison
Netlist vs RTL: what is the difference?
The difference
RTL describes behaviour at a higher level, which synthesis turns into gates. A netlist lists the actual gates or transistors and their connections.
RTL describes behaviour cycle by cycle. A netlist, produced by synthesis, lists specific gates or cells and the wires between them.
The two terms
Netlist
A structural description of a circuit as a list of instances and the nets that connect their pins. Netlists exist at gate level after synthesis, at transistor level for analog and custom blocks, and are the common currency between implementation and verification tools.
RTL
A description of hardware in terms of registers and the combinational logic that computes the values transferred between them on each clock edge, without specifying gates or layout.
Side by side
| Field | Netlist | RTL |
|---|---|---|
| Stands for | Not an abbreviation | Register Transfer Level |
| Type | Term | Acronym |
| Domain | EDA Tools & Flows | Design & Architecture |
| Group | Design flow | RTL and HDL |