The Design and Verification Challenge for the Next Decade

The real world is analog and computers are digital. These 9 words set the stage for the great circuit design challenges of the next decade. To quote G. Dan Hutchenson, president of VLSI Research, "virtual reality is possible only with mixed-signal chips," and of course, every designer on the planet, from the creators of advanced weaponry to smart phones and cars that nearly drive themselves, is hot on the trail of virtual reality. Most current EDA methods and the tools that support them are inadequate to the task of designing for the "real world" for to do so they must account for an enormous number of design considerations. The list is long and daunting for every application and includes process, voltage and temperature (PVT) variation, power consumption, process constraints and yield requirements.