Very-large-scale integration

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"VLSI" redirects here. For the former company, see VLSI Technology.

Very-large-scale integration (VLSI) is the process of creating integrated circuits by combining thousands of transistor-based circuits into a single chip. VLSI began in the 1970s when complex semiconductor and communication technologies were being developed. The microprocessor is a VLSI device. The term is no longer as common as it once was, as chips have increased in complexity into the hundreds of millions of transistors.

Contents

1 Overview
2 Notable VLSI companies
3 VLSI journals
4 VLSI conferences
5 See also
6 Further reading
7 External links
8 Software

[edit] Overview

The first semiconductor chips held one transistor each. Subsequent advances added more and more transistors, and as a consequence more individual functions or systems were integrated over time. The first integrated circuits held only a few devices, perhaps as many as ten diodes, transistors, resistors and capacitors, making it possible to fabricate one or more logic gates on a single device. Now known retrospectively as "small-scale integration" (SSI), improvements in technique led to devices with hundreds of logic gates, known as large-scale integration (LSI), i.e. systems with at least a thousand logic gates. Current technology has moved far past this mark and today's microprocessors have many millions of gates and hundreds of millions of individual transistors.

As of early 2008, billion-transistor processors are commercially available, an example of which is Intel's Montecito Itanium chip. This is expected to become more commonplace as semiconductor fabrication moves from the current generation of 65 nm processes to the next 45 nm generations.

At one time, there was an effort to name and calibrate various levels of large-scale integration above VLSI. Terms like Ultra-large-scale Integration (ULSI) were used. But the huge number of gates and transistors available on common devices has rendered such fine distinctions moot. Terms suggesting greater than VLSI levels of integration are no longer in widespread use. Even VLSI is now somewhat quaint, given the common assumption that all microprocessors are VLSI or better.

[edit] Notable VLSI companies

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
Altera
Analog Devices
ARM Ltd
Aricent
ATI Technologies
Austria Microsystems
Broadcom
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing
Conexant
Cypress Semiconductor
Dalsa
e-Infochips
Freescale Semiconductor
IBM
Infineon
Intel
KPIT Cummins
Lattice Semiconductor
Linear Technology
Marvell Technology Group
Micron Technology
National Semiconductor
NEC
NeoMagic
Nvidia
NXP Semiconductors
Portal Player
Qualcomm
Rambus
Renesas Technology
Samsung Electronics
Sandisk
Sarnoff
Sasken Communication Technologies Limited
ST Microelectronics
Tata Elxsi
Texas Instruments
Toshiba
TSMC
UMC

[edit] VLSI journals

TVLSI – IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems
JSSC – IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits
ED – IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
TCAD – IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided DESIGN of Integrated Circuits and Systems
TODAES – ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic System

[edit] VLSI conferences

ISSCC – IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference
CICC – IEEE Custom Integrated Circuit Conference
ISCAS – IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems
VLSI – IEEE International Conference on VLSI Design
DAC – Design Automation Conference
ICCAD – International Conference on Computer-Aided Design
ESSCIRC – European Solid-State Circuits Conference
ISLPED – International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design
ISPD – International Symposium on Physical Design
ISQED – International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design
DATE – Design Automation and Test in Europe
ICCD – International Conference on Computer Design
IEDM – IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting
GLSVLSI – IEEE Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI
ASP-DAC – Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference
MWSCAS – IEEE Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems
ICSVLSI – IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI
VLSI-SOC – [1] IFIP WG10.5
IEEE Symposia on VLSI Circuits and Technology

[edit] See also

ASIC
Carver Mead
Design Rules Checking
EDA
Lynn Conway

[edit] Further reading

Carver Mead & Lynn Conway. Introduction to VLSI Systems. (Addison-Wesley, 1980)
Chen, Wai-Kai (ed). The VLSI handbook. CRC/Taylor and Francis: 2007, 2nd edition. ISBN 084934199X.
Weste, Neil H.E. & Harris, David. CMOS VLSI Design. (Addison-Wesley, 3rd Edition)
VLSI-Design of Integrated Circuits Lecture Material at Darmstadt University of Technology

[edit] External links

Lectures on Design and Implementation of VLSI Systems at Brown University
Design of VLSI Systems
Association of fabless Semiconductor Companies
CMOS Textbooks
List of VLSI companies around the world
VLSI discussion portal

[edit] Software

LASI General Purpose VLSI IC layout and design system
VLSI Layout 3D - Visualization Software for LASI
Fedora Electronic Lab

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very-large-scale_integration"

Categories: Communication engineering | Electronic engineering | Integrated circuits

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