MicroSystems education and a `silicon encyclopedia´ project

It is becoming harder to educate and train engineers to design microelectronic systems, both in the University and in industry. New technology (for example field-programmable gate arrays, and other programmable logic devices) and new software (logic synthesis and hardware description languages) for MicroSystem design is arriving at a rapid pace. Silicon technology and the design tools themselves are now quite advanced-after 20 years of research and development in silicon systems, unparalleled in history. The problem now is in applying this knowledge and finding a mechanism to tie the tools and techniques together. All too often a new ASIC works according to specification, and exactly as simulation predicted, but when the chip is plugged into the system the human specification is found to contain errors. The authors discuss how to use computer-based education and training material to help the hardware and system designers who are suffering from a bad case of information overload