VLSI design of domain specific architecture

Novel methodologies for IC design need to be developed, to provide effective cost/performance tradeoffs. A structured approach to the design of domain specific integrated circuits is presented. Starting from a high-level language application description, the approach provides the designer with a set of tools to guide his choices at the different levels of detail of the design flow. Particular attention is focused on the layout phase, where a block standard cell technique is proposed. The technique can easily be integrated into the system and allows a good compromise between design time and chip area