In electronic design automation, front-end stages of the design cycle are logical and electrical design (e.g., schematic capture, logic synthesis). Sometimes floorplanning is also considered front-end. back-end are place and route, custom layout design and physical verification (design rule checking, layout versus schematic, parasitics extraction). : K! |# y0 e3 y! d 6 @ o4 k* j5 p2 HData from wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front-end