Estimating essential design characteristics to support project planning for ASIC design management

To enhance project planning and feasibility study for ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) design, a chip estimation system (CES), tightly coupled with a project plan generator system (PGS) has been developed. The CES calculates chip area, speed, and power dissipation from data of a knowledge-based data acquisition system which gathers basic design characteristics, requirement specification data, and information about complexity and problems of a design. The resulting data are transferred to the PGS, which generates alternative project plans based on a design-style-specific knowledge base. Using vendor- and technology-specific cost factors, estimation of design time and design, production, and test costs is performed. The project-control system controls execution of a selected project plan.<>