1. Introduction to VLSI Design Amit Kumar Mishra ECE Department IIT Guwahati

2. Tale of two queries! Y R U here? Y M I here?

3. Landmarks Moore’s axiom Some more funda Free CAD tool Parting notes

4. 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

5. Moore’s Law 1 10 100 1K 10K 100K 1M 10M 19751980198519901995 Transistors 10x/6 years 8086 68000 68020 80386 80486 68040 8080 4004 Pentium Pro Pentium PPC601 PPC603 MIPS R4000 Microprocessors [©Keutzer]

6. 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

7. IC Product Market Shares Source: Electronic Business

8. Example: Intel Processor Sizes Source: http://www.intel.com/ 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

9. Heterogeneity on Chip Greater diversity of on­ chip elements  Processors  Software  Memory  Analog [©Keutzer] More transistors doing different things! Heterogeneity

10. 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!

11. VLSI Design Styles Full Custom Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Programmable Logic (PLD, FPGA) System-on-a-Chip

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. The Inverted Pyramid [©Keutzer] Electronic Systems > $1 Trillion Semiconductor > $220 B CAD $3 B

17. Where is the money? Gaps to be filled:  System-semiconductor gap  Semiconductor-CAD gap

18. 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!

19. 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!

20. Thank You Best of Luck for End-Sems and Internships