Since the invention of integrated circuits thirty years ago, manufacturing of
electronic systems has taken rapid strides in improvement in speed, size, and
cost. For today’s integrated circuit chips, switching time is on the order of
nanoseconds, minimum feature size is on the order of sub-microns, transistor
count is on the order of millions, and cost is on the order of a few dollars.
In fact, it was estimated that the performance/cost ratio of integrated circuit
chips has been increasing at the rate of one thousand-fold every ten years,
yielding a total of for the last three decades. A combination of high product
performance and low per-unit cost leads to the very pervasive introduction of
integrated circuit chips to many aspects of modern engineering and scientific
endeavors including computations, telecommunications, aeronautics, genetics,
bioengineering, manufacturing, factory automation, and so on. It is clear that
the integrated circuit chip will play the role of a key building block in the
information society of the twenty-first century.
The manufacture of integrated circuit chips is similar to the manufacture
of other highly sophisticated engineering products in many ways. The three
major steps are designing the product, fabricating the product, and testing the
fabricated product. In the design step, a large number of components are to
be designed or selected, specifications on how these components should be assembled
are to be made, and verification steps are to be carried out to assure
the correctness of the design. In the manufacturing step, a great deal of manpower,
and a large collection of expensive equipment, together with painstaking
care are needed to assemble the product according to the design specification.
Finally, the fabricated product must be tested to check its physical functionality.
As in all engineering problems, there are conflicting requirements in all
these steps. In the design step, we want to obtain an optimal product design,
and yet we also want the design cycle to be short. In the fabrication step, we
want the product yield to be high, and yet we also need to be able to produce
a large volume of the product and get them to market in time. In the testing
step, we want the product to be tested thoroughly and yet we also want to be
able to do so quickly.
The title of this book reveals how the issue of enormous design complexity
is to be handled so that high quality designs can be obtained in a reasonable
amount of design time: We use muscles (automation) and we use brain
(algorithms). Professor Sherwani has written an excellent book to introduce
students in computer science and electrical engineering as well as CAD engineers
to the subject of physical design of VLSI circuits. Physical design is a
key step in the design process. Research and development efforts in the last
twenty years have led us to some very good understanding on many of the
important problems in physical design. Professor Sherwani’s book provides a
timely, up-to-date integration of the results in the field and will be most useful
both as a graduate level textbook and as a reference for professionals in the
field. All aspects of the physical design process are covered in a meticulous
and comprehensive manner. The treatment is enlightening and enticing. Furthermore,
topics related to some of the latest technology developments such as
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and Multi-Chip Modules (MCM)
are also included. A strong emphasis is placed on the algorithmic aspect of
the design process. Algorithms are presented in an intuitive manner without
the obscurity of unnecessary formalism. Both theoretical and practical aspects
of algorithmic design are stressed. Neither the elegance of optimal algorithms
nor the usefulness of heuristic algorithms are overlooked. ¿From a pedagogical
point of view, the chapters on electronic devices and on data structures and basic
algorithms provide useful background material for students from computer
science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering. The many exercises
included in the book are also most helpful teaching aids.