Design of mixed-signal systems-on-a-chip

The electronics industry is increasingly focused on the consumer marketplac e, which requires low-cost high-volume products to be developed very rapidl y. This, combined with advances in deep submicrometer technology have resul ted in the ability and the need to put entire systems on a single chip. As more of the system is included on a single chip, it is increasingly likely that the chip will contain both analog and digital sections. Developing the se mixed-signal (MS) systems-on-chip presents enormous challenges both to t he designers of the chips and to the developers of the computer-adided desi gn (CAD) systems that are used during the design process. This paper presen ts many of the issues that act to complicate the development of large singl e chip MS systems and how CAD systems are expected to develop to overcome t hese issues.