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
Transistors
Law
Microprocessors PPC603
10M Pentium
80486 Pentium Pro
1M 80386 PPC601
68020 68040 MIPS R4000
68000
100K
8086
10K
4004
8080
1K

100 10x/6
10x/6 years
years
10

1
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995
[©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
Silicon Process 1.5 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.35 0.25
Technology
Intel386TM DX
Processor

Intel486TM DX
Processor

Pentium® Processor

Pentium® Pro &

Pentium® II Processors
Source: http://www.intel.com/
Heterogeneity on Chip
 Greater diversity of on­chip
elements Heterogeneity
 Processors
 Software
 Memory
 Analog

More
Moretransistors
transistorsdoing
doingdifferent
differentthings!
things!

[©Keutzer]
Stronger Market Pressures
 Decreasing design window
 Less tolerance for design Time-to-market
revisions

Exponentially
Exponentiallymore
morecomplex,
complex,greater
greaterdesign
designrisk,
risk,
greater
greatervariety,
variety,and
andaasmaller
smallerdesign
designwindow!
window!

[©Keutzer]
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
Electronic Systems > $1 Trillion

Semiconductor > $220 B

CAD $3 B

[©Keutzer]
 Where is the money?
 Gaps to be filled:
 System-semiconductorgap
 Semiconductor-CAD gap
A free CAD flow for all who care!

 Alliance CAD tools

 "Architecture des Systèmes intégrés et
Micro électronique" department of LIP6
 875 000 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