The impact of supercomputers on IC technology development and design

Very large scale integration (VLSI) has evolved at an enormous rate, progressing from hundreds of components on an integrated circuit (IC) in the 1960's to a million components on a chip in the foreseeable future. This paper reviews some of the computer-aided design (CAD) tools that are essential for VLSI technology development and circuit design and that also require large amounts of computer resources. Specifically, we describe programs for process simulation, device simulation, and circuit simulation. This paper also reviews the impact of high-performance computing facilities on the development and use of these programs at AT & T Bell Laboratories.