Design technology productivity in the DSM era

Future requirements for design technology are always uncertain due to changes in process technology, system implementation platforms, and applications markets. To correctly identify the design technology need, and to deliver this technology at the right time, the design technology community-commercial vendors, captive CAD organizations, and academic researchers-must focus on improving design technology time-to-market and quality-of-result. Put another way, we must address the well-known design productivity gap by addressing the design technology productivity gap. The future of design technology is most uncertain in the physical implementation space, where many complexities must be managed without sacrificing system value or turnaround time. This talk will begin with examples of changes in methodology and design tool infrastructure needed to support future physical implementation. Then, recent initiatives in the MARCO Gigascale Silicon Research Center (GSRC) are described which support the design technology and designer communities in creating the right design technology when it is needed