VLSI and Technological Innovation

VLSI relies on a range of disciplines for its successful implementation. Two of the most important of these are still in their infant stages. A. Design methodologies to manage complexity. B. Architecture of ultra concurrent machines. Innovation in infant disciplines occurs most rapidly and successfully when a large number of small groups proceed independently under the motivation of market opportunity. In a few years, a substantial fraction of the engineering work force will have a working knowledge of LSI design. At the same time, fabrication areas are becoming more and more capital intensive. What is needed is a clean, standard interface between a multitude of small diverse VLSI design groups and a few state-of-the-art fabrication suppliers. A proposal for such an interface is presented in this article