CAD for VLSI Design - I Lecture 2

V. Kamakoti and Shankar Balachandran

Outline of this lecture

VLSI Challenges
Past, Present and Future Design of CAD Tools Research Issues

Who Said This?

Why cannot we write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopedia Brittannica on the head of a pin?

Clue : Nobel Laureate Physicist

Richard Feynman
There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom was a talk delivered to American Physical Society at California Institute of Technology
In 1959

Excellent vision
Predicted nanotechnology just by analyzing what limits theory pose

Build what we want with molecular precision

How Chips Have Shrunk?

1946 in UPenn Measured in cubic ft.

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ENIAC on a Chip

1997 174,569 Transistors

7.44mm x 5.29mm 0.5 Technology

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Integrated Circuit Revolution

1958: First integrated circuit (germanium) Built by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments Contailed five components : transistors, resistors and capacitors

2000: Intel Pentium 4 Processor Clock speed: 1.5 GHz # Transistors: 42 million Technology: 0.18m CMOS

Evolution in IC Complexity

If Transistors are Counted as Seconds

4004 8080 8086 80286 80386 DX 80486 Pentium Pentium Pro P II P III P4 < 1 hr < 2 hrs 8 hrs 1.5 days 3 days 13 days > 1 month 2 months 3 months ~1 year ~ 1.5 years
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Comparison of Sizes

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How Small Are The Transistors?

Micron Sub-micron Deep-sub micron Nano Ultra Deep-sub micron

2.0 1.0

80286

80386

486

pentium pentium II Pentium IV Itanium

0.3 0.2 0.1 0.05 0.03 83 86 89 92 95 98

01

04

07

Compare that to diameter of human hair - 56

m
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Moores Law
Transistors double almost every 2 years
Gordon Moore of Intel Visionary prediction Observed in practice for more than 4 decades

Implication
More functionality More complexity Cost ??

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Processor Power Trends

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Power Density Increase

Suns 10000 Power Density (W/cm2) 1000 100 10
8086 8085 286 8080

Surface Rocket Nuclear Reactor Hot Plate

P6 386 Pentium 486

Nozzle

8008 4004

1 1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

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Productivity Gap

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Complexity

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How to Handle Complexity?

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VLSI Design Flow

Specifications X = AB; Y = CD; Z= X+Y;

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Design Automation
Tools are used at every step Manual intervention is still required
Tools do not scale up very well

Many problems are NP-Complete Theory vs Practice

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Before Tools
Faggin laid out 4004 by hand
Drawn on paper and photographed Demagnified 500 times smaller

Seymour Cray relied on humans to build supercomputers

Women used to cut wires by hand Delicate handwork was necessary

Almost no verification or validation

Chips may not function properly Market may return products
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Design Goals Over Time

speed/area area power speed speed/power Speed+ Power low power /reliability reliable ultra-low power

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s
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Famous Quotes
IBM founder T.J. Watson in 1945
I dont think there will ever be a market for more than 5 computers in this world.

Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Corp. 1977

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.

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There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom

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