VLSI for the new era

VLSI design currently allows to build million-transistor chips and is about to enable Gigascale (GSI) design and Terascale Scale Integration (TSI) design. From a system design perspective, this increase in integration levels is qualitatively different from past integration improvements of similar magnitudes. In particular, new challenges and design alternatives arise: manufacturing defects increase, devices get less reliable, interconnects are orders of magnitude slower than transistors, new nanotechnologies and mixed technologies merge with CMOS, and signal and power management issues are aggravated. It is even plausible that new fabrication processes will be used to complement or replace CMOS.