Synapse: An Expert System for VLSI Design

V LSI design involves mapping a problem specification into mask V descriptions for circuit fabrication. This typically spans at least three different dimensions for representing a problem-behavioral (or functional), structural (architectural), and physical (capturing placement and geometry)-as well as several levels of abstraction along each dimension. Functional abstractions include Boolean expressions, programs in conventional languages such as C, Lisp, Pascal, and Ada, as well as representation independent of axiomatic or equational specifications, such as programs in OBJ. I Structural abstractions include descriptions at the register-transfer level, the switch-level, the transistor level, and so on. Physical abstractions capture placement and geometry, and include programmable logic arrays (PLAs); symbolic descriptions that use logical symbols, for example, 0's and I's, such as storage logic arrays (SLAs)2 and path programmable logic arrays (PPLs)3; symbolic descriptions using circuit elements4; and masklevel descriptions.

[1]  Brent E. Nelson,et al.  Transforming an Ada Program Unit to Silicon and Verifying Its Behavior in an Ada Environment: A First Experiment , 1984, IEEE Software.

[2]  Donald E. Thomas,et al.  Automatic Data Path Synthesis , 1983, Computer.

[3]  P. A. Subrahmanyam.  TRACIS: transformations on Ada for circuit synthesis a report on the methodology for a silicon compiler , 1983 .

[4]  Sanjay V. Rajopadhye,et al.  Formal semantics for a symbolic IC design technique: Examples and applications , 1985, Integr..

[5]  Jay R. Southard,et al.  MacPitts: An Approach to Silicon Compilation , 1983, Computer.

[6]  Louise Trevillyan,et al.  LSS: A system for production logic synthesis , 1984, IBM Journal of Research and Development.

[7]  Joseph A. Goguen,et al.  Parameterized Programming , 1984, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

[8]  John J. Granacki,et al.  The ADAM Advanced Design Automation System: Overview, Planner and Natural Language Interface , 1985, 22nd ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference.

[9]  Gajski,et al.  Guest Editors' Introduction: New VLSI Tools , 1983, Computer.

[10]  Gary Lindstrom,et al.  Transformation of ADA Programs into Silicon , 1982 .

[11]  Patrice Quinton,et al.  The systematic design of systolic arrays , 1987 .

[12]  Alan B. Hayes.  Self-Timed IC Design with PPL’s , 1983 .

[13]  Jeffrey D. Ullman,et al.  Experience with a regular expression compiler , 1983 .

[14]  Suhas S. Patil,et al.  A Programmable Logic Approach for VLSI , 1979, IEEE Transactions on Computers.

[15]  Harold Brown,et al.  Palladio: An exploratory environment for circuit design , 1983, Computer.

[16]  Edmund M. Clarke,et al.  Compiling path expressions into VLSI circuits , 1985, POPL '85.

[17]  P. W. Kollaritsch,et al.  TOPOLOGIZER: An Expert System Translator of Transistor Connectivity to Symbolic Cell Layout , 1984, ESSCIRC '84: Tenth European Solid-State Circuits Conference.