The impact of AI technology on VLSI design

by ROBERT S. KIRK
Gould AMI Semiconductors
1\vain Harte, California

ABSTRACT
Twenty years ago, artificial intelligence technology promised to revolutionize the
world. As time would tell, advances in artificial intelligence have taken significantly
longer than expected. Slow progress created skepticism and disinterest in the technology. Today there is a great deal of renewed interest in the field, tempered by the
slow progress of the past twenty years. This new interest is focused on domain
specific artificial intelligence applications, rather than the broad problem solving
capabilities originally proposed. In addition this interest is focused on domains
offering exceptional return on investment, either through direct profits or through
leveraging of scarce resources. This paper surveys the potential impact of artificial
intelligence technology on the VLSI design domain. This domain is characterized
by a fifteen year evolution of computer aided design tools, a chronic shortage of
skilled integrated circuit designers and ever growing demands for shorter design
spans, reduced costs and design error rates.

125

From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)

From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)

The Impact of AI Technology on VLSI Design

INTRODUCTION

127

plotter. A digitizing system is the graphical analogy to a textual word processing system. The main drawback of digitizing
systems is that they did little to help a person perform the
design task.

Advances in integrated circuit (IC) fabrication technology are

rapidly outpacing IC design capabilities. The first ICs contained small scale integrated (SSI) functions, which were
straightforward to design. As device counts increased, early
design methods quickly became obsolete. Today computerized tools are widely used to design very large scale integrated
(VLSI) circuits. These software tools are themselves very
complex. Yet with advances in IC fabrication technology, the
pressure to solve more difficult design automation problems
continues to increase. Present software technology has been
pressed to the practical limit in the current generation ofVLSI
design tools. Entirely new approaches to the VLSI design
problem are required. 1 ,2 Artificial intelligence (AI) technology may hold the key to solving this problem.
This paper explores the potential contributions of AI technology to VLSI design and attempts to answer the following
questions. Will AI offer truely useful solutions, or will it go
the way of the past twenty years? What significant changes in
VLSI design can be expected in the next three, five or ten
years due to AI?
The degree to which AI impacts VLSI design will significantly affect the entire computing community. Advances in
VLSI supports advances in computing hardware and together
they feed advances in AI research.
Before describing how AI technology will be used to advance VLSI design capabilities, VLSI design requirements are
reviewed, followed by an overview of existing AI based VLSI
design tools. Then the salient features of AI technology are
examined to draw some conclusions on their impact on VLSI
design tools and methodology.

At roughly the same time that checking and analysis tools

were under development, interest in the test and diagnosis
area increased. Procedures for testing and diagnosing problems in SSI complexity ICs were totally inadequate for testing
complete VLSI systems on a chip. Numerous algorithmic approaches were tried, but there has been relatively little success
to date. Researchers are now turning to AI techniques to see
if this difficult problem can be solved.

TRENDS IN VLSI DESIGN

Synthesis

The VLSI design tool domain is commonly referred to as

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) or Design Automation (DA)
as it applies to integrated circuit design. The complexity of ICs
is increasing so rapidly that ICs are no longer limited to simple
logic devices. Rather complete digital systems are being designed on a single silicon chip. 3 Thus the term VLSI design
means both digital systems design and IC design.

With reasonable performance from checking and analysis

tools, research attention shifted to the general area of design
synthesis and is now the most active area in the VLSI design
tool domain. The idea behind synthesis is to solve the problem
of automating the design process. Most synthesis systems
operate in a series of steps known as decomposition and refinement as illustrated in Figure 1. Within the area of synthesis, there are two major'topics: silicon compilation, and automatic test generation.

Digitizing

In the early days, CAD tools were developed to automate

the tedious and error-prone task of creating IC photomask
artwork. By digitizing the photomask drawings or layouts, a
computerized editing system could be used to make changes.
New artwork was then generated automatically on a photo

Checking and Analysis

Next came a generation of checking and analysis tools.

These tools are similar to a spelling checker in a word processing system. Their purpose was to automate the incredibly
difficult and tedious task of checking a layout for design rule
violations or analyzing the performance of an electronic circuit. These tools helped the designer immensely by eliminating a great deal of mechanical work. A person, however, still
had to perform all of the creative design work.
Because these CAD tools were primarily mechanical in
nature, they lent themselves to implementation by algorithms
that were not unreasonably complicated. This is not to say
that these algorithms were trivial, only that AI techniques
were not required.
Test and Diagnosis

Silicon Compilation

The term silicon compilation was first coined by Johansen4 ,5

to describe a process, similar to a software compiler, whereby
a textual chip description would be automatically compiled

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National Computer Conference, 1985

into layout artwork. Today this concept has been widely expanded and now divides into two broad areas: functional
specifications to structural netlist compilation, and structural
netlist to layout artwork compilation as illustrated in the Ydiagram in Figure 2.
A structural netlist contains the information found in an
engineer's logic diagram. Logic symbols are converted into a
netlist format usable by the computer. The information is said
to be structural because it describes which logic gates will be
used and how they are to be interconnected. Information on

DESION REFINEMENT LEVElS

ASYNCHRONOUS
SYSTEM DESIGN
BEHAVIORAL
DESCRIPTION
REGISTER
TRANSFER
MACRO
CELL
GATE!
SWITCH
ABSTRACT
GEOMETRY
PHYSICAL
GEOMETRY

Figure 1-Decomposition and refinement steps

FUNCTIONAL
REPRESENTATION

STRUCTURAL
REPRESENTATION
PROCESSOR
MEMORY
SWITeK

how it works (function) and details of the chip layout are

absent. An example of a logic diagram and netlist are shown
in Figure 3.
Structural netlist to layout artwork compilers include common tools such as placement and routing for gate array and
standard cell chips. These tools automatically perform the
design steps involved in deciding where to place cells and how
to route the interconnections so as to minimize chip area.
Some such tools can actually perform a better job than human
designers, at a fraction of the time and with no mistakes. 6
Another form of layout artwork compiler generates layouts
directly from a two dimensional layout language. 7 Layout generators create detailed layout cells for use by a structural
netlist to layout artwork compiler. In a sense the cell generator is used to build up the target machine language instructions (cells) of the compiler in terms of a micro code sequence
(transistors and connections). Figure 4 shows a simple generator input and output. In some cases, generators are used to
create more complex layouts such as a complete datapath for
a CPU. 8 ,9
Functional specifications to structural netlist compilers perform the task of converting abstract English language descriptions of the system's desired performance into a logic diagram. The first problem is that deciphering English language
descriptions is non-trivial. This problem is avoided by inventing a constraining hardware description language (HDL) for
writing functional specifications.
The first functional specification compilers performed tasks
such as generating programmable logic arrays (PLA). Boolean equations were converted to structural information and
then to layout artwork.
Current efforts in this area are much more ambitious. The
long term goals are to be able to compile a very high level
HDL into logic for any type of digital system. Most research

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GEOMETRICAL
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Figure 2-The silicon compilation process

Figure 3-Logic diagram and netlist

From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)

The Impact of AI Technology on VLSI Design

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in this area is employing some sort of AI techniques to achieve

this goal. 10
Automatic Test Generation and Diagnosis

There seems to be a consensus that the goals of automatic

test generation and diagnosis require higher level solutions
than have been employed thus far. Researchers are realizing
that structural netlist descriptions contain far too little information about the "function" of the system. 11,12 With progress
in the functional specifications compilation area, it is hoped
that breakthroughs will be found in automatic test generation
and diagnosis.
OVERVIEW OF EXISTING AI.VLSI TOOLS
It is useful to examine the VLSI tools in existence today that

use AI technology. Published tools include the XCON expert

hardware configuration system, the CMU-DA system, and
the MacPitts, Arsenic and Palladio silicon compilers.
XC ON was one of the first CAD/CAM tools to use AI
technology. 13 XCON performs the difficult task of configuring
computer systems for the Digital Equipment Corporation.

129

While XCON is not involved in VLSI design, it demonstrated

the use of AI technology in the engineering domain.
The CMU-DA system represents a significant effort to automate the design of digital systems, including CPU and VLSI
design. The project has covered many different aspects of the
domain. Some software components were written along the
lines of conventional CAD tools, while others struck out to
experiment with AI technology. These tools, such as TALIB14
and EMUCSIDAA,15 use the OPS5 16 production rule system.
The CMU projects probably represent the most encompassing efforts to date to explore the use of AI in the systems and
VLSI design domain.
TALIB is an expert system for performing the mask layout
step starting from a structural netlist. It is effective on small
cells with approximately 20 transistors. The production sys-.
tem employs over 1200 rules to construct layouts which are
about 10 to 35 percent less area efficient than layouts created
by human designers. Cells at this efficiency level are not too
useful and the very high number of production rules must have
been difficult to collect.
On the other hand the EMUCS/DAA system appears to be
more useful. EMUCS and DAA are expert CPU design systems that work at the architectural or functional level. The
input to these systems consists of a set of desired machine
instructions, and the output is a block diagram and finite state
transition table for a CPU. These systems employ only about
70 production rules to obtain acceptable results.
These two systems from Carnegie-Mellon University point
out that there are some problems that experts easily solve, and
others which the machine can easily solve. In the case of
TALIB, the problem is characterized by a relatively small
amount of data (20 transistors) and a large number of design
rules (at least 1200). For EMUCS/DAA, there is more data
(hundreds of machine instructions) and few rules (about 70).
The silicon compiler systems: MacPitts,17 Arsenic18 and Palladio,19 are a bit more conventional because they use an algorithmic approach. The unique quality of these tools however,
is that they all employ a search scheme through some abstract
design space. Silicon compilers attempt to evaluate a large
number of tradeoffs and thereby tryout a large number of
alternative designs. Figure 5 illustrates how a silicon compiler
might evaluate several approaches. This approach differs from
the human design approach where only one or two alternative
designs are considered. While none of these systems are yet
producing competitive layouts as compared to human designs,
they have the potential to do so.
USEFUL AI CONCEPTS
Approaching AI from the VLSI design perspective, one
would like to extract concepts from AI technology which can
be put to practical use. Some concepts are actually not new
but rephrased and with the rephrasing often comes new ideas
about how to use or implement the concepts.
. Computer Languages

Probably the most visible contributions of AI technology

are the LISP and PROLOG languages. These languages are

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130

National Computer Conference, 1985

STRUCTURAL
REPRESENTATION

FUNCTIONAL
REPRESENTATION

PROCESSOR
MEMORY
SWITCH

nology information was put into a technology file which was

read by the program at start up time.
These technology files are a form of knowledge database.
The formal concept of knowledge databases, however, introduces new ideas. Many "tricks" embodied in present CAD
tool algorithms could be pulled out and kept in a design
knowledge database. This would facilitate changes to the tool
for handling different design styles.
Expert Systems

GEOMETRICAL
REPRESENTATION

Figure 5-Alternative designs in the design space

significant in the new programming paradigms they each introduce. In addition they allow large algorithms to be implemented in significantly less code. For LISP, a 5 to 1 improvement over PASCAL is common. Since programmers write
lines of code at the same rate, independent of the language,
this is a significant productivity gain.
Algorithmic vs Production Rule Driven

Many people are taking advantage of the greater inherent

capability of LISP to develop more powerful algorithms.
These algorithms are generally more symbolic than numerical
in nature, much in the same sense that algebra is more powerful than arithmetic. The algorithmic approach is behind some
of the advanced VLSI design tools such as layout generators,
MacPitts and Arsenic.
Production rule driven systems such as TALIB and Palladio
represent a significant departure from the more conventional
algorithmic approach. Proponents of each approa~h strongly
believe their approach is correct. From a more objective point
of view, it seems reasonable that both approaches are useful,
one better than the other in particular cases.
Knowledge Database

Many design tools were originally written in such a way that

they embodied the IC fabrication technology in hard coded
expressions. For example, a Design Rule Checker (DRC)
might check a layout designed in 4-micron NMOS technology.
When the technology was changed, say to 4-micron CMOS or
to 3-micron NMOS, the entire program would have to be
overhauled. It was not long before the IC fabrication tech-

Expert systems are loosely defined as a computer program

capable of performing tasks at a level equal to or better than
experts in the domain of interest. Within this loose definition
a number of conventional VLSI design tools could be consid~
ered expert. A more proper definition of expert systems requires the software to be based on some sort of production
rule system. Yet the differences are not as great as they appear. What makes a system perform at an expert level? It
usually is the number of IF-THEN conditions in the conventional programming language paradigm and the number of
rules in a production system. While the numbers are on different scales, they are a metric of expertise.
The benefits of the expert systems approach are that fewer
rules are required as compared to IF-THEN conditions, and
hence the knowledge is more clearly specified. Also, the only
code in the system is the rules themselves. This introduces the
notion of granularity of knowledge. The more granular the
knowledge, the easier the system is to modify and extend.
Natural Language

Natural language processing holds the promise of being

able to supply the ultimate user-friendly system. A major
barrier to the use of VLSI design tools is the user interface.
Often the designer must learn a fair amount of "computereze" to deal effectively with the host computer operating system and the individual tools. With natural language processing, a VLSI design tool would be able to deal at a more
English like level. This would shorten user training time and
avoid mistakes because the tool should be better at "do what
I mean" as opposed to "do what I say." The current state of
natural language capability supports effective program directed dialogue. The user is asked questions in English and is
expected to respond with one word. User directed dialogue
capabilities are beginning to emerge with limited capabilities.
A natural language front end would eliminate the need for
a hardware description language (HDL) front end to the functional specifications silicon compiler. In removing the rigid
constraints of an HDL, the system should do a better j{)b of
capturing the sorts of vague and implied tradeoffs and constraints which engineers express in English language functional specifications.
Learning

Machine learning is an extremely attractive idea. A learning

system would be able to follow the work of human experts and

From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)

The Impact of AI Technology on VLSI Design

131

extract the knowledge for use on similar problems. The main

attraction is the dramatic reduction in knowledge acquisition
time and cost which is theoretically possible. Unfortunately,
research in the machine learning area has not advanced very
far at this time.

amounts of data and a large number of rules will be developed

slowly. Progress towards unperstanding learning is so slow as
to virtually eliminate any chance of using learning to make
expert systems acquire rules more quickly, any time in the
next ten years.

THE IMPACT OF AI

CONCLUSION

VLSI design tool developers will assimilate techniques from

AI as rapidly as technology and development time permits. AI
promises to bring new features and capabilities to VLSI design tools as well as improved design methodologies. It will
also have limitations which will keep it from being a panacea.

From this brief survey of the VLSI design and AI fields, it is

evident that AI technology will significantly alter the way
VLSI design is done today. Many human design tasks will be
automated, leaving designers to deal with the most difficult
and obscure design problems. These advances will pave the
way for major revolutions in computing hardware and AI
research.

Promises

Most certainly, AI based tools will make great strides forward in improving user friendliness. Starting with simple
things such as program directed dialogue in the near term
(three years) and moving toward user directed dialogue (full
natural language processing) in the long term (ten years).
The flexibility of production rule systems will enable sophisticated users to modify knowledge databases and alter tools.
Because the baggage of implementation details in algorithmic
systems is left behind, production rules are fairly easy to understand. The small granularity of production rules makes it
more practical for a tool user to understand the IF-THEN
rules and judge the impact of modifications. This will enable
the user, for the first time, to modify design tools without the
assistance of programmers.
With more powerful programming paradigms comes the
ability to create more powerful tools. Synthesis tools such as
a complete general purpose silicon compiler will emerge in the
long term. This tool will leverage scarce engineering resources
tremendously and greatly shorten VLSI design times.
Expanded Capabilities

With long term advances in VLSI, computer hardware and

AI, it is reasonable to expect performances from VLSI design
tools that exceeds human capabilities. This seems quite probable, given the large amounts of data and knowledge required
to design ICs. It is reasonable to assume that a machine can
eventually do a better job of evaluating complex tradeoffs and
selecting the best design from among many design attempts.
In addition, an expert design system should be able to complete its task many times faster than a person. Eventually it
may be possible to generate working chips from an English
description in the time it takes to fabricate the silicon chips.
Limitations

The foregoing probably sounds a bit optimistic and may

well be. Natural language understanding is still the subject of
much research. Expert systems for problems with small

REFERENCES
1. Kirk, R., and T. Daspit. "Making the Design Transition." Semiconductor
International, 7-5 (1984), pp. 103-107.
2. Kirk, R. "Workstations--A Passing Fad?" Professional Program Session
Record, WESCONI84, 1984, pp. 112.1-112.4.
3. Mead, C., and L. Conway. Introduction to VLSI Systems. Reading, Mass.:
Addison-Wesley, 1980.
4. Johansen, D. "Bristle Blocks: A Silicon Compiler," IEEE Proceedings of
the 16th Design Automation Conference. New York: IEEE, 1979, pp.
310-313.
5. Ayres, R. VLSI Silicon Compilation and the Art of Automatic Microchip
Design. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1983.
6. Mehta, S., B. Kirk, M. Ng, and R. Babbar. "CIPAR-A Complete
Correct-By-Construction Placement and Routing System," IEEE Proceedings of the Custom Integrated Circuits Conference. New York: IEEE,
1984, pp. 117-121.
7. Batali, J. An Introduction to DPL. MIT Memo 81-65, October 1981.
8. Shrobe, H. E. "The Datapath Generator." Proceedings of the Conference
on Advanced Research in VLSI, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1982.
Dedham, Mass.: Artech House, 1981, pp. 175-181.
9. Agre, P. E. A High-Level Silicon Compiler. Ph.D. Thesis, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, January 1983.
10. Gajski, D. D., and R. H. Kuhn. "New VLSI Tools," IEEE Computer
Magazine, December 1983, pp. 11-14.
11. Chandramouli, R. "Designing VLSI Chips for Testability," Electronics
Test, November 1982, pp. 50-60.
12. Davis, R., and H. Shrobe. "Representing Structure and Behavior of Digital
Hardware," IEEE Computer Magazine, October 1983, pp. 75-82.
13. Kraft, A. "XCON: An Expert Configuration System at Digital Equipment
Corporation." 1n P. H. Winston and K. A. Prendergast (eds.), The AI
Business. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1984.
14. Kim, J., and J. McDermott. "TALIB: An IC Layout Design Assistant,"
AAAI Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Los
Altos, Calif.: William Kaufman, 1983, pp. 197-201.
15. Thomas, D. E., C. Y. Hitchcock III, T. J. Kowalski, V. J. Rajan, and R.
Walker. "Automatic Data Path Synthesis," IEEE Computer Magazine,
December 1983, pp. 59-70.
16. Forgy, C. L. OPS5 User's Manual. Carnegie-Mellon University Report
CMU-CS-81-135, July 1981.
17. Southard, J. R. "MacPitts: An Approach to Silicon Compilation," IEEE
Computer Magazine, December 1983, pp. 74-82.
18. Gajski, D. D., and J. J. Bozek. "ARSENIC: Methodology and
Implementation." IEEE Proceedings of the International Conference on
Computer-Aided Design. New York: IEEE, 1984, pp. 116-118.
19. Brown, H., C. Tong, and G. Foyster. "Palladio: An Exploratory Environment for Circuit Design." IEEE Computer Magazine, December 1983, pp.
41-56.

From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)

From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)

Panel Abstracts

Panel: Artificial intelligence tools in actual use-I

Chair:
JAMES SLAGLE, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Members:
B. CHANDRASEKARAN, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
NANCY MARTIN, Wang Institute of Graduate Studies, Tyngsboro, Massachusetts
JOHN VITTAL, Xerox Corporation, Pasadena, California

Expert systems can be built from scratch, using programming languages such as
LISP, Prolog, or even FORTRAN; but recent increases in the understanding of the
common patterns that appear in such systems have led to the creation of tools called
shells for building expert systems. Such tools are higher-order languages,
independent of particular application, that attempt to provide a user-friendly
interface, a general-purpose inference mechanism, and a knowledge representation
paradigm such as frames or" rules. These shells can greatly increase the speed with
which a new expert system is implemented. This session describes and contrasts
some of the expert system building tools that have recently become available.

Panel: Artificial intelligence tools in actual use-II

Chair:
EAMON BARRETT, Smart Systems Technology, McLean, Virginia
Members:
RUBIN BROOKS, ITT Research Laboratories, Shelton, Connecticut
THOMAS BYLANDER, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
JOHN HINCHMAN, General Dynamics, San Diego, California

Expert systems have excited the imagination of all those seeking increases in
productivity from their computer systems. Although there is much activity in the
field, a relatively small number of expert systems are in actual production use. This
session focuses on existing, economically viable expert systems and some soon to be
installed, addressing applications in computer system configuration, the petrochemical industry, and the financial and military arenas.

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133

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National Computer Conference, 1985

Panel: Qualitative reasoning for prediction and

diagnosis
Chair:
KENNETH FORBUS, University of Illinois-Urbana, Urbana, Illinois
Members:
B. CHANDRASEKARAN, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
JOHAN deKLEER, Xerox PARC, Palo Alto, California
JOHN MOHAMMED, Schlumberger, Palo Alto, California
RAMAN RAJAGOPALAN, IBM, Houston, Texas
REID SIMMONS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Classical numerical techniques are insufficient to make computers that can analyze,
monitor, operate, and repair complex physical systems as well as people do. The
tacit expertise people bring to bear on these tasks, the common-sense knowledge
about the physical world gleaned by years of living in it, must also be captured.
Qualitative physics is the attempt to formalize this tacit knowledge and endow
computers with similar reasoning skills. The members of this panel, representing
several different approaches to qualitative physics, contrast their systems and
explore potential applications.

Panel: Knowledge-based systems for engineering

design
Chair:
DUVURRU SRIRAM, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Members:
STEVEN J. FENVES, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
JIN H. KIM, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
L. STEINBERG, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey

Knowledge-based expert systems are emerging as an important tool kit for the
development of engineering software. These systems incorporate the heuristic
knowledge of experts. Since a large part of engineering design is heuristic, these
expert systems provide a means for automating the design process. Engineering
design involves visualization of the product at the highest level; as the design
progresses, this abstraction is refined into smaller subsystems. Since design involves
subdividing the problem, interactions among subproblems must be carefully
handled.
This session reviews the current state of the art of the application of
knowledge-based expert systems to engineering design. The panelists develop a
common methodology (problem-solving process and constraint handling) that
arises from the approaches discussed.

From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)

Panel Abstracts

Panel: Applied artificial

fantasy?

intelligenc~:

Future or

Chair:
MICHELE K. PESTA, AT&T Information Systems, Summit, New Jersey
Members:
KEN BECK, Texas Instruments, Austin, Texas
C. KERRY NEMOVICHER, Consultant, Morganville, New Jersey
DENNIS O'CONNOR, Digital Equipment Corporation, Hudson, Massachusetts
DAN SCHUTZER, Citibank, New York, New York

In its July 9, 1984, cover story, Business Week proclaimed: "Artificial IntelligenceIt's Here!" A scant few weeks later Fortune magazine, in its August 20 issue,
reported that "Programs called expert systems are being ballyhooed as the hottest
technology around. While useful for some tasks, the systems aren't as smart as they
sound."
No longer the exclusive toy of academia and esoteric research institiutions, the
buzzwords and catch-phrases of AI have found a prominent place in the popular
media. Throughout the realm of applied technology AI is now the subject of an
ongoing debate, its virtues both touted and doubted by a community anxious to see
real progress. Skeptics remain unconvinced. For the casual but interested observer,
most of the issues still remain clouded in jargon and partially understood concepts.
This session attempts to cut through that fog-to clarify terms, concepts, and
issues. It does not attempt to resolve the debate of what is possible versus what is
merely potential, but rather to set up a framework within which meaningful
dialogue is possible.

Panel: Silicon compilers

Chair:
DANIEL GAJSKI, University of Illinois-Urbana, Urbana, Illinois
Members:
HAL ALLES, Silicon Design Labs, Liberty Corner, New Jersey
WALT CURTIS, Silicon Compilers, Inc., San Jose, California
DOUG FAIRBAIRN, VLSI Technology, Inc., San Jose, California
ROBERT KUHN, Gould Research Center, Rolling Meadows, Illinois
GARY MILES, Seattle Silicon Technology, Inc., Bellevue, Washington

Silicon compilers represent a new technique for designing complex integrated

circuits. By automating the block, logic, circuit, and layout stages of the design, the
engineer is free to concentrate on the architectural specification. This session
presents the state of the art in silicon compilation and describes some of the
available systems.

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National Computer Conference, 1985

Panel: Future of automated reasoning

Chair:
LAWRENCE WOS, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois
Members:
WOODY BLEDSOE, MCC, Austin, Texas
LARRY HENSCHEN, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
DOUG SMITH, Kestrel Institute, Palo Alto, California

Previously open questions in mathematics and logic have been answered, superior
logic circuits designed, the design of existing binary adders validated, claims about
computer programs proved, computer programs synthesized-all with the
assistance of various automated reasoning programs. How much did the program
do, and how much did the person do? You do not need to be an expert in automated
reasoning to use such a program. Are there differences between automated
reasoning and artificial intelligence? Can a single reasoning program provide
assistance in all the areas cited, and if so, what does that say about general-purpose
versus special-purpose programs? In addition to the use of parallel processing, the
panel will discuss what is needed to make reasoning programs more powerful and
more useful. For example, how can reasoning programs provide greater assistance
for systems control, diagno&is, and design? Finally, is the future of this new field as
challenging, exciting, and promising as some imply?

From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)

FUTURE ARCHITECTURES
AND SUPERCOMPUTERS
KAI HWANG, Track Chair
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California

137

From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)

From the collection of the Computer History Museum (www.computerhistory.org)