Advanced instrument controller ASIC

In this paper, a ruggedized ultra-low power 16 Mhz 8051-based data acquisition and control microcontroller ASIC with modest data processing capability designed and fabricated in National Semiconductor's 0.35 micron 3-level metal CMOS7 technology is presented. The Advanced Instrument Controller 8051 (AIC51) was designed for the Mars Microprobe Mission or Deep Space 2 technology-validation mission in NASA's New Millenium program. The design process from system level tradeoffs, architecture considerations, implementation, low-power design strategies, power analysis and layout generation and verification is described. Techniques for low-power design and verification are discussed.