Agenda

Over the last few decades, we have witnessed dramatic evolution and changes in electronics. Figure 13.1 outlines these changes by illustrating

• The displacement of the key driving markets,

• The rise and demise of electronic devices and implementation technologies, and

• The shift of focus from device-level circuit design and physical construction to defining and verifying the functionality that sells best.

As a result, engineers and project managers have never before been presented with so many alternative choices for implementing their circuits and systems. This holds true in spite of the fact that fabrication technology has narrowed down to CMOS in almost all digital applications. Abstracting from lower-level options and commercial products, table 13.1 shows the fundamental options in a highly condensed form.

While there was a time when components used to be very basic and available with a limited choice, today's integration densities have led to a diversification into an almost astronomical number of powerful and highly specialized components. ICs have grown very complex and many of them implement entire systems. It is not exceptional to find that the “datasheet” of a key component such as a CPU, an FPGA, or an ASSP comprises a thousand pages, or almost so.

The emergence of new business models such as virtual components (VCs) has further complicated the process of finding the best approach to implementing an electronic product or system.