ASIC by design: automated design of digital signal processing application-specific integrated circuits

Comparing the optimized results to the baseline, we are achieving typically 10-20/spl times/ improvement in PDA. This allows gap closure to approach the optimization of a full custom design process while preserving the automation and design efficiency of ASIC design. Additionally, the reuse of each macro saves two to three staff-months, and each optimization script saves one to two staff-months. Hence, we achieve an overall reduction in design time even though it takes extra time to run these optimization tools. The mission-specific processing (MSP) design flow can be applied to a wide range of DSP and other digital processing applications, where high performance and integration is required. The macros developed were selected to span important algorithms commonly performed in communication, radar, navigation, targeting, electronic warfare and other military and national security applications.