An interactive system for VLSI chip physical design

The Federal Systems Division has developed a structured design methodology and a companion chip physical design system that has been used to build seven large VLSI chips (ranging in size from 7K to 36K logic primitives). Using the MVISA system, a logic designer has complete control and responsibility for the total chip design. Our experience has been that when this highly interactive software and methodology is used, chip physical design requires less than two weeks. This is a significant savings in design time; but more importantly the designer can allocate more schedule for logic design and simulation. This paper describes how FSD's unique interactive physical design system has improved productivity of VLSI design.