An Integrated VLSI Design Environment

On-going research on the development of an integrated VLSI design environment is presented. Although numerous VLSI design tools have been developed, previous approaches tend to attack the VLSI design environment in a fragmented fashion. This difficulty can be overcome by using an integrated simulation environment as the cornerstone upon which the VLSI design environment is built. Among the elements to be considered in an integrated VLSI design environment are multi-level functional/behavioral design specifications; simulators, optimizers, and design rule checkers; natural language user interface; and a knowledge base. In an environment context, new opportunities appear. For example, facilitation of the ability to generate revisions of VLSI devices in a relatively straight-forward manner over the lifecycle of a family of devices. Moreover, this endeavor can be viewed as a multi-level silicon compiler, which is embedded in a simulation environment.