Requirements for the multimedia era

Abstract This article presents a rapid overview of the expected performance of the next generation of digital VLSI circuits designed for communications. This forecast is based on the now well accepted international (SIA) roadmap for silicon with continuously improving performance up to the 0.05 μ m generation (even the 0.03 μ m generation). The enormous processing capacity that will be feasible on one square (cm 2 ) of silicon is presented, which will itself impose a new vision of chip architecture so as to take maximum advantage of this processing performance. In the years to come designers will have to face the challenge of managing the hardware-software ubiquity of the next VLSI generation. System-on-Chip (SoC) will lead to the hardware and software developments and to `things that think', the ultimate production of complex, `intelligent', and autonomous systems communicating anywhere, anytime.