A Coherent VLSI Design Environment

Abstract : The CAD effort is centered on timing analysis and circuit simulation. Advances have been made in tightening the bounds of timing analysis. The superiority of the Gauss-Jacobi technique for matrix solution, over the Gauss-Seidel method, has been proven when the algorithms are implemented on massively parallel machines. In the circuits area, one result of importance is a new technique for calculating the highest frequency of operation of transistors with parasitic elements present. Work on a synthesis technique is under way. In the architecture area, many new results have been derived for parallel algorithms and complexity. One of the most astonishing is that a hypercube with a large number of faulty nodes can be used, with high probability, as another perfectly functioning hypercube of half the size, by using reconfiguration algorithms that are simple, fast, and require only local information. Also, the design of the message-driven processor is continuing, with several advances in architecture, software, communications, and ALU design. Many of these are being implemented in VLSI circuits. The theory work has as a central theme that the cost of communication should be included in complexity analyses. This has led to advances in models for computation, including volume-universal networks, routing, network flow, fault avoidance, queue management, and network simulation.