An ASIC design flow of deep submicron succeeds on first pass

Used in multimedia personal computers, Texas Instruments' TVP4020 (Permedia 2) is a complete graphics solution. This chip is one of the first graphics processor to deliver 3D, 2D, AGP, PCI and RAMDAC on the same fully integrated device. The key to the successful implementation of any device lies in its design methodology. The growing levels of abstraction increase the front-end designer's productivity greatly, but because the back-end design remains a geometric function of the number of the gates to be placed in the design, the change in design styles increase the difficulty for the physical designers. As a result, physical designers will need to increase and improve their skills, and the CAD tools will need to become more flexible and more capable. The successful implementation of TVP4020 (Permedia 2) on a 0.35 /spl mu/m technology is a good example of how great an impact a good design methodology can have on the overall development of a device.