The papers in this book were presented at the Third Caltech Conference on Very Large Scale Integration, held March 21-23, 1983 in Pasadena, California. The conference was organized by the Computer Science Depart ment, California Institute of Technology, and was partly supported by the Caltech Silicon Structures Project. This conference focused on the role of systematic methodologies, theoretical models, and algorithms in all phases of the design, verification, and testing of very large scale integrated circuits. The need for such disciplines has arisen as a result of the rapid progress of integrated circuit technology over the past 10 years. This progress has been driven largely by the fabrica tion technology, providing the capability to manufacture very complex elec tronic systems reliably and at low cost. At this point the capability to manufac ture very large scale integrated circuits has exceeded our capability to develop new product designs quickly, reliably, and at a reasonable cost. As a result new designs are undertaken only if the production volume will be large enough to amortize high design costs, products first appear on the market well past their announced delivery date, and reference manuals must be amended to document design flaws. Recent research in universities and in private industry has created an emerg ing science of very large scale integration.

This volume on computational intelligence covers the 17th Conference on Advanced Research in VLSI in 1997. Topics include: VLSI architecture; asynchronous design; circuits; layout; image sensors; optimization; system timing; CAD; and low-power design.

This book provides a superb introduction to and overview of the MIT PI System for custom VLSI placement and routing. Alan Sher man has done an excellent job of collecting and clearly presenting material that was previously available only in various theses, confer ence papers, and memoranda. He has provided here a balanced and comprehensive presentation of the key ideas and techniques used in PI, discussing part of his own Ph. D. work (primarily on the place ment problem) in the context of the overall design of PI and the contributions of the many other PI team members. I began the PI Project in 1981 after learning first-hand how dif ficult it is to manually place modules and route interconnections in a custom VLSI chip. In 1980 Adi Shamir, Leonard Adleman, and I designed a custom VLSI chip for performing RSA encryp tion/decryption [226]. I became fascinated with the combinatorial and algorithmic questions arising in placement and routing, and be gan active research in these areas. The PI Project was started in the belief that many of the most interesting research issues would arise during an actual implementation effort, and secondarily in the hope that a practically useful tool might result. The belief was well-founded, but I had underestimated the difficulty of building a large easily-used software tool for a complex domain; the PI soft ware should be considered as a prototype implementation validating the design choices made.

VLSI Electronics Microstructure Science, Volume 14: VLSI Design presents a comprehensive exposition and assessment of the developments and trends in VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) electronics. This volume covers topics that range from microscopic aspects of materials behavior and device performance to the comprehension of VLSI in systems applications. Each article is prepared by a recognized authority. The subjects discussed in this book include VLSI processor design methodology; the RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer); the VLSI testing program; silicon compilers for VLSI; and specialized silicon compiler and programmable chip for language recognition. Scientists, engineers, researchers, device designers, and systems architects will find the book very useful.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute, SOGESTA, Urbino, Italy, July 9-20, 1984

Large Scale Scientific Computation is a collection of papers that deals with specialized architectural considerations, efficient use of existing computers, software developments, large scale projects in diverse disciplines, and mathematical approaches to basic algorithmic problems. One paper describes numerical treatment of large highly nonlinear two or three dimensional boundary value problems by quadratic minimization techniques applied in many institutions such as in Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussees, Avions Marcel Dassault et Breguet Aviation. Another paper discusses computer-structured design techniques to improve the reliability, efficiency, and accuracy of future production codes. Computer modelling is a potent tool in numerical weather prediction relying on observation, analysis, initialization, and model development. One paper illustrates a systolic algorithm for matrix triangulation, as well as its uses in the Cholesky decomposition of covariance matrices. Another paper describes the Transient Reactor Analysis Code (TRAC) designed to deal with internal flow problems of nuclear reactors. One paper explains the application of large-scale aerodynamic simulation where the programmer can use finite difference techniques in which a large number of mesh points are strategically and orderly placed in the domain of the flow field. The collection is intended for undergraduates in mathematics, programming, computer science, or engineering courses, and designers or researchers involved in industrial facilities, aeronautics, and nuclear design.