Physical design challenges for billion transistor chips

Abstract

Advancing process technology will necessitate and even more rigorous automation of the IC design trajectory. The design scale will increase with Moore's law, approaching 1,000,000,000 transistors in the coming years. This enables the design of SoC systems with complexities unprecedented unhuman history. At the same time the physics of silicon manufacturing is increasing the 'silicon complexity'. Additional design steps are required to address cross talk, voltage drop, antenna rules and others. Much more so than in previous technology nodes, the effects of parasitics must be addressed at various stages of the IC design flow. Nothing less than a full automation of the silicon complexity issues is required to stop the design productivity gap from growing.