Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Introduction to Microelectronics
- Chapter 2 From Algorithms to Architectures
- Chapter 3 Functional Verification
- Chapter 4 Modelling Hardware with VHDL
- Chapter 5 The Case for Synchronous Design
- Chapter 6 Clocking of Synchronous Circuits
- Chapter 7 Acquisition of Asynchronous Data
- Chapter 8 Gate- and Transistor-Level Design
- Chapter 9 Energy Efficiency and Heat Removal
- Chapter 10 Signal Integrity
- Chapter 11 Physical Design
- Chapter 12 Design Verification
- Chapter 13 VLSI Economics and Project Management
- Chapter 14 A Primer on CMOS Technology
- Chapter 15 Outlook
- Appendix A Elementary Digital Electronics
- Appendix B Finite State Machines
- Appendix C VLSI Designer's Checklist
- Appendix D Symbols and constants
- References
- Index
- Plate section
Chapter 2 - From Algorithms to Architectures
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Introduction to Microelectronics
- Chapter 2 From Algorithms to Architectures
- Chapter 3 Functional Verification
- Chapter 4 Modelling Hardware with VHDL
- Chapter 5 The Case for Synchronous Design
- Chapter 6 Clocking of Synchronous Circuits
- Chapter 7 Acquisition of Asynchronous Data
- Chapter 8 Gate- and Transistor-Level Design
- Chapter 9 Energy Efficiency and Heat Removal
- Chapter 10 Signal Integrity
- Chapter 11 Physical Design
- Chapter 12 Design Verification
- Chapter 13 VLSI Economics and Project Management
- Chapter 14 A Primer on CMOS Technology
- Chapter 15 Outlook
- Appendix A Elementary Digital Electronics
- Appendix B Finite State Machines
- Appendix C VLSI Designer's Checklist
- Appendix D Symbols and constants
- References
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
The goals of architecture design
VLSI architecture design is concerned with deciding on the necessary hardware resources for solving problems from data and/or signal processing and with organizing their interplay in such a way as to meet target specifications defined by marketing.
The foremost concern is to get the desired functionality right. The second priority is to meet some given performance target, often expressed in terms of data throughput or operation rate. A third objective, of economic nature this time, is to minimize production costs. Assuming a given fabrication process, this implies minimizing circuit size and maximizing fabrication yield so as to obtain as many functioning parts per processed wafer as possible.
Another general concern in VLSI design is energy efficiency. Battery-operated equipment, such as hand-held cellular phones, laptop computers, digital hearing aids, etc., obviously imposes stringent limits on the acceptable power consumption. It is perhaps less evident that energy efficiency is also of interest when power gets supplied from the mains. The reason for this is the cost of removing the heat generated by high-performance high-density ICs. While the VLSI designer is challenged to meet a given performance figure at minimum power in the former case, maximizing performance within a limited power budget is what is sought in the latter.
The ability to change from one mode of operation to another in very little time, and the flexibility to accommodate evolving needs and/or to upgrade to future standards are other highly desirable qualities and subsumed here under the term agility.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Digital Integrated Circuit DesignFrom VLSI Architectures to CMOS Fabrication, pp. 44 - 135Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008