Chuck was right
- To: MISC
- Subject: Chuck was right
- From: Mike Losh <mlosh01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 11 Jul 95 15:35:01 EST
Anyone see this annoucement in EDN magazine:
"Integrated Silicon Systems (ISS) has developed
[Psi]Time, a delay calculator that addresses the
problems of calculating delays in interconnect-
dominated submicron chips...determining the RC
network's 'effective' capacitance..."
EDN July 16, 1995.
Doesn't this sound like Chuck Moore's OKAD system he is
using on F21, P32, and P8? (See the July/August 1995
Forth Dimentions for some extra info on OKAD.) Jeff Fox
reported that Chuck
"has been thinking about sub .1 micron technology.
It will be a big problem for the industry, because
at these scales the interconnect delay becomes more
signifigant than gate delay...Chuck's answer is what
he does in OKAD, manual place and route. Chuck says
the industry will need some very advanced AI software
or they will need to get engineers involved in the
designs to solve these problems."
Well, you can get part of such software from ISS, but it
costs **$25,000** and runs on a (presumably RISC) workstation.
And from what I gathered from the announcement, that just buys
you the delay information. You still don't get any "AI" to help
with silicon routing.
Maybe Chuck could shrink-wrap his OKAD simulation software
and lowball the competition at $1,000 per package. He could
provide a way to read in silicon layouts in standard file
formats so the EEs would be comfortable. Maybe disable the
manual place and route (editing) features until they buy an
additional "upgrade." You know they would be dying to tweak
the layout manually once the package shows them delay
bottlenecks! Might need to make the OK inferface coexist with
MS-Windows so the EEs' managers will pay for it. (It can
probably run in a DOS box if it gets its memory from DPMI
services).
I'd like to see Chuck make some money from his inventions, even
if most of the computer industry ignores his delightful MISC
chips. I see some other interesting business opportunities here.
How does "Sub-Micron Silicon Tuning Services" sound? A company
could hire Computer Cowboys or an offshoot to hand tune a mostly
finished design. I know that approach won't yield optimal designs,
but I can imagine that a company would spend BIG BUCKS to fix a chip
that just misses its timing specs a little. Especially near the end
of a costly development/prototyping phase.
Physics majors unite!
--
Mike Losh Standard disclaimers apply.
B.A. Physics, Grinnell College