Microcomputers: trends, technologies, and design strategies

Performance/cost ratios greater than 1 MIP per central processing unit (CPU) $ will be realized. As design rules decrease, the traditional superiority of on-chip interconnections increases, transistor performance becomes ever less an issue, and single-chip microcomputers will dominate the whole computer industry. CMOS technology will take the lead for the foreseeable future because its low power dissipation permits the best possible performance-it provides more MIPs per watt than competing technologies. Design will be increasingly computer aided. Database management and verification can, on the other hand, be reduced to logical processes and assigned to machines. Symbolic designs, hierarchically organized and executed with logic, layout, and system design done in parallel, offer good packing densities and performance and permit reasonable design intervals. The Bellmac-32A microprocessor, a 0.7 W 1 MIP CMOS chip containing 146000 transistor sites, used the above strategies. Its control section, I/O, and much of its data path were designed and debugged in 14 months.