Keynote talk: Opportunities and challenges for high performance microprocessor designs and design automation

Summary form only given, as follows. With end of an era of classical technology scaling and exponential frequency increases, high end microprocessor designs and design automation methodologies are at an inflection point. With power and current demands reaching breaking points, and significant challenges in application software stack, we are also reaching diminishing returns from simply adding more cores. In design methodologies for high end microprocessors, although chip physical design efficiency has seen tremendous improvements, strong indications are emerging for maturing of those gains as well. In order to continue the cost-performance scaling in systems in light of these maturing trends, we must innovate up the design stack, moving focus from technology and physical design implementation to new IP and methodologies at Logic, architecture, and at the boundary of hardware and software, solving key bottlenecks through application acceleration. This new era of innovation, which moves the focus up the design stack presents new challenges and opportunities to the design and design automation communities. This talk will motivate these trends and focus on challenges for high performance microprocessor design and design automation in the years to come.