Introduction to VLSI Design Amit Kumar Mishra ECE Department IIT Guwahati
Tale of two queries! Y R U here? Y M I here?
Landmarks Moore’s axiom Some more funda Free CAD tool Parting notes
Moore’s Law Gordon Moore: co-founder of Intel Predicted that the number of transistors per chip would grow exponentially (double every 18 months) Exponential improvement in technology is a natural trend: e.g. Steam Engines - Dynamo - Automobile
Moore’s Law K 10K 100K 1M 10M Transistors 10x/6 years Pentium Pro Pentium PPC601 PPC603 MIPS R4000 Microprocessors [©Keutzer]
IC Products Processors CPU, DSP, Controllers Memory chips RAM, ROM, EEPROM Analog Mobile communication, audio/video processing Programmable PLA, FPGA Embedded systems Used in cars, factories Network cards System-on-chip (SoC) Images: amazon.com
IC Product Market Shares Source: Electronic Business
Example: Intel Processor Sizes Source: Intel386 TM DX Processor Intel486 TM DX Processor Pentium® Processor Pentium® Pro & Pentium® II Processors 1.5 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.35 0.25 Silicon Process Technology
Heterogeneity on Chip Greater diversity of on chip elements Processors Software Memory Analog [©Keutzer] More transistors doing different things! Heterogeneity
Stronger Market Pressures Decreasing design window Less tolerance for design revisions [©Keutzer] Time-to-market Exponentially more complex, greater design risk, greater variety, and a smaller design window!
VLSI Design Styles Full Custom Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Programmable Logic (PLD, FPGA) System-on-a-Chip
Full Custom Design Each circuit element carefully “handcrafted” Huge design effort High Design & NRE Costs / Low Unit Cost High Performance Typically used for high-volume applications
ASIC Constrained design using pre-designed (and sometimes pre-manufactured) components Also called semi-custom design CAD tools greatly reduce design effort Low Design Cost / High NRE Cost / Med. Unit Cost Medium Performance
Programmable Logic (FPGA) Pre-manufactured components with programmable interconnect CAD tools greatly reduce design effort Low Design Cost / Low NRE Cost / High Unit Cost Lower Performance
System-on-chip (SOC) Idea: combine several large blocks Predesigned custom cores (e.g., microcontroller) - “intellectual property” (IP) ASIC logic for special-purpose hardware Programmable Logic (PLD, FPGA) Analog Open issues Keeping design cost low Verifying correctness of design
The Inverted Pyramid [©Keutzer] Electronic Systems > $1 Trillion Semiconductor > $220 B CAD $3 B
Where is the money? Gaps to be filled: System-semiconductor gap Semiconductor-CAD gap
A free CAD flow for all who care! Alliance CAD tools "Architecture des Systèmes intégrés et Micro électronique" department of LIP Transistor design done Limit is your processor power and your design abilities!
Scenario in India??? HUGE outsourcing Loads of startups (WHY?) VLSI design is nowhere a single nation job Fabrication labs (fabs) in USA getting sold out India getting 4 fabs by next year!
Thank You Best of Luck for End-Sems and Internships