A VLSI design management environment

In a study of problems in VLSI design, in particular with reference to the design methods and tools used in the Computer Science Department at UCL, a report was prepared, detailing the structure of a `digital design environment´ (DDE). The issues brought to light by this study, and the solutions put forward are summarised. The key aspects of the DDE are to remove unnecessary, repetitive work from the designer, leaving them to concentrate on the design itself. This should in turn make VLSI products cheaper and quicker to make, and reduce errors. By also preventing the designer from taking short-cuts, mistakes which are made are recoverable, and the designer has a comprehensive history of the design (along with comments) to refer to. Finally, by making the DDE highly configurable, it can be tailored to suit every designer´s need, and has little chance of becoming obsolete, since new tools can easily be incorporated