On the relationship among accuracy, tolerance and compensation in the deep sub-micron era

Abstract

Historically, ASIC solutions tended to be effective because the physics and scale of most production technologies allowed circuit designers (and circuit design tools) to safely abstract physical properties: the size and performance of chips could largely be predicted based on logical structure alone. But those days are going fast, and with the advent of 500 K+ gate chips in deep sub-micron (DSM) technologies, new approaches must be found, This paper starts with some background in technology trends, and then reviews the traditional "over the wall" methodology. Section 3 then proposes a "limited loops" design flow based on estimation, floorplanning, and the effective cooperation of synthesis and gate-level placement technologies. This flow is discussed from the perspective of error in the estimation processes and the ability of subsequent steps to tolerate and compensate for the error.