'Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)'
Doi
Abstract
Inexorable progress in device scaling has given rise
to obvious increases in circuit complexity. There
is the conjecture that the level of complexity in hardware designs is akin to the level of complexity associated with large software systems. If this is the case, then it follows that the design methods and expertise of systems analysts could be brought
to bear on the complexity problems associated with
large designs in silicon. Already there is evidence that
structured hardware design, analogous to structured programming, is emerging in design philosophies
that emphasize wiring management and hierarchical design
development with regular structures [1]. However, if the expertise of the personnel in the software world
is to be applied to silicon implementations of systems
then there must be mechanisms that allow their participation in the design process. This could most effectively be achieved by allowing them to write programs which, when compiled, yield code that produces manufacturing data for silicon parts. Thus, taking a macroscopic view, there is a need to provide design tools that take
a completely textual description of a design and translate it to layout data