Modern VLSI Design: System-on-Chip Design, Third Edition

1 Digital Systems and VLSI

Highlights:

VLSI and Moore’s Law.

CMOS vs. other logic families.

Hierarchical design.

1.1 Why Design Integrated Circuits?

This book describes design methods for integrated circuits. That may seem like a specialized topic. But, in fact, integrated circuit (IC) technology is the enabling technology for a whole host of innovative devices and systems that have changed the way we live. Integrated circuits are much smaller and consume less power than the discrete components used to build electronic systems before the 1960s. Integration allows us to build systems with many more transistors, allowing much more computing power to be applied to solving a problem. Integrated circuits are also much easier to design ...