Quality-driven design in the system-on-a-chip era: Why and how?

Modern microelectronic technology enables implementation of a complete comp lex information processing system on a single chip. Progress in microelectr onic technology is extremely fast and is outstripping the system designers' abilities to make use of the created opportunities. The complexity and qua lity of the microelectronics-based systems as well as their design and prod uction cost and time tend to be more limited by the design methods and tool s than by the microelectronic technology. Substantial improvement can only be achieved through development and application of a new generation of more suitable design paradigms, methods and tools. In this paper, some new oppo rtunities and difficulties related to the system-on-a-chip technology are c onsidered, the nature of the complex system design problems is analyzed and a quality-driven system design methodology is proposed and discussed. Some important implications are also considered of the modern quality concepts for design modeling, design exploration techniques and tools, design decisi on making, design reuse and design validation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B. V. All rights reserved.