Platform leadership in the ambient intelligence era

Abstract

Design reuse has become essential to cope with the ever-increasing design complexity. IP level reuse alone has proven insufficient. Platform based design allows the validation of a robust combination of IP blocks and provides a reference HW and SW baseline which can be supported with an integrated development environment. Several years ago we transitioned into the streaming data era with most systems serving as content generation appliances, content consumption appliances or content distribution equipment. Now we have entered the age of ambient intelligence where the streaming data is served up through wireless links. What will platform leadership look like in this new era? How will the SoC infrastructure change as we move to 90nm technology with more than 30M gate per square centimeter integration capacity? How are usage patterns changing and what represents the killer application that enhances the users quality of life by enabling more advanced interaction with the ambient intelligence? What is it going to take to make a step function improvement in system level design productivity? What happens when power optimization becomes the dominant design consideration? What about SoC affordability? What will the SoC design of the future look like? These are just some of the thought provoking issues that will be addressed in Bob Payne’s keynote.