Title :
Exploring regular fabrics to optimize the performance-cost trade-off
Author :
Pileggi, L. ; Schmit, H. ; Strojwas, A.J. ; Gopalakrishnan, P. ; Kheterpal, V. ; Koorapaty, A. ; Patel, C. ; Rovner, V. ; Tong, K.Y.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Abstract :
While advances in semiconductor technologies have pushed achievable scale and performance to phenomenal limits for ICs, nanoscale physical realities dictate IC production based on what we can afford. We believe that IC design and manufacturing can be made more affordable, and reliable, by removing some design and implementation flexibility and enforcing new forms of design regularity. This paper discusses some of the trade-offs to consider for determination of how much regularity a particular IC or application can afford. A Via Patterned Gate Array is proposed as one such example that trades performance for cost by way of new forms of design regularity.
Keywords :
circuit optimisation; integrated circuit design; integrated circuit economics; performance evaluation; IC production; VPGA; design flexibility; design regularity; implementation flexibility; integrated circuit design; integrated circuit manufacturing; performance-cost trade-off; semiconductor technology; via patterned gate array; Application specific integrated circuits; CMOS technology; Cost function; Electronic design automation and methodology; Fabrics; Integrated circuit technology; Manufacturing; Moore´s Law; Productivity; Very large scale integration;
Conference_Titel :
Design Automation Conference, 2003. Proceedings
Print_ISBN :
1-58113-688-9
DOI :
10.1109/DAC.2003.1219125
