SILICON COMPILATION SPEEDS DESIGN OF COMPLEX CHIPS.

Advances in IC processing capability, for example, have made a complexity of a quarter million transistors per IC commonplace. And, a complexity of one million transistors per IC is close behind. Moreover, each IC requires a total of seven designs to ensure that it will perform to the original architectural specification. Other problems in full-custom design include a limited availability of IC designers, inadequate design tools, development times extending to several years, and the uncertainty that an IC will work on the first pass. Silicon compilation creates a full-custom circuit with the silicon efficiency of a handcrafted design, but with fewer resources and a shorter development cycle.