1. Purpose of the gate
This gate closes the IP DFT and implementation views stage. It confirms that an integrator has what they need to test, time, power and implement the block: test structures and patterns, validated timing constraints, timing and power models for the agreed operating conditions, and the results of a reference synthesis on a target process.
Views fail quietly. A constraint that hides a real path, or a model from an earlier version, does not stop a chip from being built; it stops it from working. The gate therefore checks not only that each view exists, but that each was checked against the released design and agrees with every other view.
For a soft block the review is about constraints, power intent, test structures, patterns and models, because each SoC team will synthesise and place the block itself; the reference synthesis shows that this works on a target process. Where a reference hardening is offered, its abstract views are reviewed as a reference only. Physical sign-off of a laid out macro belongs to the hard IP lifecycle.
10 more sections for registered members.