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IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE Fall 2012 1 Senior Administrator, Katherine Olstein Terms to 31 Dec FALL 2012 VOL. 4 • NO. 4 www.ieee.org/sscs-news INTRODUCTION TO SYSTEMS FEATURES CARVER MEAD • LYNN CONWAY 8 Reminiscences of the VLSI Revolution How a series of failures triggered a paradigm shift in digital design. By Lynn Conway 32 A Paradigm Shift Was Happening All Around Us By Chuck House 36 Witnessing the Birth of VLSI Design By Carlo H. Séquin ABOUT THIS IMAGE: This book helped start a revolution; read 40 “Covering” all about it starting on p. 8. How we missed the inside-story of the VLSI revolution. By Ken Shepard TUTORIAL COLUMNS/ DEPARTMENTS 43 On the Other Applications of Organic Electronics on Foil 3 CONTRIBUTORS By Hagen Marien, Michel S.J. Steyaert, 4 EDITOR’S NOTE Erik van Veenendaal, and Paul L. Heremans 5 R P ESIDENt’S CORNER 6 ASSOCIATE EDITOR’S VIEW 50 PEOPLE 54 CHAPTERS 61 OS CIETY NeWS 62 I EEE NEWS 64 CONFERENCE RepORTS 71 CONFERENCE CALENDAR CVR 3 FOOTER Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2012.2214274 IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE FALL 2012 1 Senior Administrator, Katherine Olstein Terms to 31 Dec. 2014 IEEE SOLID-STATE IEEE SSCS, 445 Hoes Lane Christian Enz, Hideto Hidaka, Kofi Makinwa, Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA Boris Murmann, Roland Thewes CIRCUITS MAGAZINE Tel: +1 732 981 3410 Fax: +1 732 981 3401 Region 8 Representative EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Bram Nauta Mary Y. Lanzerotti SSC ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE [email protected] Region 10 Representative President, Rakesh Kumar [email protected] Vacant Technology Connexions, Inc. TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Poway, California, USA Chairs of Standing Committees Jake Baker Vice-President, Bill Bidermann Awards—John J. Corcoran [email protected] Zeebo, Inc. Chapters—Jan Van der Spiegel Secretary, Trudy Stetzler Education—Domine Leenaerts TUTORIALS EDITOR TI, Inc. Meetings—Ken O Willy Sansen Membership—Tzi-Dar Chiueh [email protected] Treasurer, H.S. Lee, MIT Nominations Past President, Bernhard Boser —Bernhard Boser ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR THE FAR EAST UC Berkeley Publications—Glenn Gulak Pengfei Zhang [email protected] Other Representatives Representative to Sensors Council ASSO CIATE EDITOR FOR Darrin Young IEEE PERIODICALS/ EUROPE AND AFRICA Representative to CAS from SSCS MAGAZINES DEPARTMENT Marcel Pelgrom Tony Chan Carusone [email protected] SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR Representative to SSCS from CAS Geraldine Krolin-Taylor C ONTRIBUTING EDITOR Michael Flynn Tom Lee Representatives to EDA Council SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Janet Dudar [email protected] Bryan Ackland, Vivek Tawari NEWS EDITOR Representatives to ISSCC ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Katherine Olstein Bryan Ackland, Jan Van der Spiegel Gail A. Schnitzer [email protected] Representative to IEEE GOLD Program PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Emre Ayranci Theresa L. Smith MAGAZINE ADVISORY COMMITTEE Representatives to Nanotechnology Council Chair: Richard Jaeger S TAFF DIRECTOR, PUBLISHING OPERATIONS Jake Baker, Erik Heijne, Elad Alon, Ian Young Fran Zappulla Michael Kelly, Rakesh Kumar, Representative to Technical Committee on RFID Mary Lanzerotti, Tom Lee, Shahriar Mirabbasi EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Dawn M. Melley Katherine Olstein, Representative to Engineering Technology Marcel Pelgrom, Willy Sansen, Management Council PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Lewis Terman, Alice Wang, Pengfei Zhang Mike Beunder Peter M. Tuohy Representative to Biometrics Council ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MANAGER Bruce Hecht Felicia Spagnoli IEEE SOLID-STATE Elected AdCom Members at Large BUSINESS DEVELOpmeNT MANAGER CIRCUITS SOCIETY Terms to 31 Dec. 2012 Susan Schneiderman +1 732 562 3946 Fax: +1 732 981 1855 Executive Director, Michael Kelly Kerry Bernstein, John J. Corcoran, [email protected] IEEE SSCS, 445 Hoes Lane Hae-Sung (H.S.) Lee, Trudy Stetzler, www.ieee.org/ieeemedia Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA William Redman-White Tel: +1 732 981 3400 Terms to 31 Dec. 2013 IEEE prohibits discrimination, harassment, and Fax: +1 732 981 3401 Jake Baker, Tohru Furuyama, Franz bullying. For more information, visit http://www. [email protected] Dielacher, Peter Kinget, Stefan Rusu ieee.org/web/aboutus/whatis/policies/p9-26.html. SCOPE: Each issue of IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine is envisioned as a self-contained resource for fundamental theories and practical advances within the field of integrated cir- cuits (ICs). Written at a tutorial level and in a narrative style, the magazine features articles by leaders from industry, academia and government explaining historical milestones, current trends and future developments. CONTACT INFORMATION: See the “Contact Us” page on SSCS Web site: http://ewh.ieee. org/soc/sscs/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id= 10&Itemid=3. IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine (ISSN 1943-0582) ( SCMOCC) is published quarterly by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Headquarters: 3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10016-5997, USA +1 212 419 7900. Responsibility for the contents rests upon the authors and not upon the IEEE, the Society, or its members. The magazine is a member- ship benefit of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society, and subscriptions are included in Society fee. Replacement copies for members are available for $20 (one copy only). Nonmembers can purchase individual copies for $155.00. Nonmember subscription prices are available on request. Copyright and Reprint Permissions: Abstracting is permitted with credit to the source. Libraries are permitted to photocopy beyond the limits of the U.S. Copyright law for private use of patrons: 1) those post-1977 articles that carry a code at the bottom of the first page, provided the per-copy fee indicated in the code is paid through the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01970, USA; and 2) pre-1978 articles without fee. For other copying, reprint, or republication permission, write to: Copyrights and Permissions Department, IEEE Service Center, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway NJ 08854 USA Copyright © 2012 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine, IEEE, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA. Canadian GST #125634188 PRINTED IN USA Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2012.2214275 ABOUT THE COVER: Lynn Conway conceived of and became the principal author of the famous Mead-Conway text, thereby launching a worldwide revolution in VLSI system design in the late 1970s. 2 FALL 2012 IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTORS LYNN CONWAY in - CARLO H. SÉQUIN the design house AnSem as a senior vented scalable MOS is a professor of design engineer. design rules and computer science highly simplified at the University of MICHEL S.J. STEY- methods for silicon California, Berkeley. AERT is a full profes- chip design, con- After working with sor at the Katholieke ceived of and became the principal integrated circuits for two decades, Universiteit Leuven author of the famous Mead-Conway he now works on three-dimensional and chair of the text, and pioneered the intensive designs, ranging from architectural Electrical Engineer- course at MIT that taught these building models to abstract geomet- ing Department. methods, thereby launching a rical sculptures. worldwide revolution in VLSI system ERIK VAN VEENEN- design in the late 1970s. KEN SHEPARD has DAAL is a principal been influenced by scientist at Polymer CHUCK HOUSE was Lynn Conway’s work Vision BV. most recently chan- for more than 25 cellor of Cogswell years. He is a pro- College, Sunnyvale, fessor of electrical California, and exec- engineering at Columbia University. PAUL L. HEREMANS utive director of is an imec fellow, Media X @ Stanford University after HAGEN MARIEN director of imec’s a long career at Hewlett-Packard was a research assis- Large Area Electron- and Intel. tant in the ESAT- ics Department, and MICAS Laboratory part-time profes- of the Katholieke sor in the Electrical Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2012.2215750 Universiteit Leuven. Engineering Department of the Uni- Date of publication: 24 December 2012 After finishing his Ph.D., he joined versity of Leuven. IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE FALL 2012 3 EDITOR’S NOTE Mary Lanzerotti Welcome to the Fall 2012 Issue of IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine! This Fall 2012 issue marks the fourth How a Series of Failures Triggered grateful for the work of our continuing issue of the fourth year of IEEE Solid- a Paradigm Shift in Digital Design,” News Editor Katherine Olstein and for TState Circuits Magazine. In this issue, and three expert articles in honor the columns of PengFei Zhang, associ- we are fortunate to feature Lynn Con- of Prof. Conway that describe the ate editor of Asia, and Tom Lee, con- way, professor of Electrical Engineer- impact of her research: tributing editor. ing and Computer Science Emerita at ■ Chuck House, “A Paradigm Shift The goal of each issue of IEEE Solid- the University of Michigan. This spe- Was Happening All Around Us” State Circuits Magazine continues to cial issue is titled “Lynn Conway: VLSI ■ Carlo Séquin, “Witnessing the Birth be to create a series of self-contained Reminiscences.” We are delighted to of VLSI Design” resources, with original sources and be able to present the achievements ■ Kenneth Shepard, “‘Covering’: new contributions by experts describ- in this special issue in honor of Prof. How We Missed the Inside-Story ing the current state of affairs in tech- Conway. of the VLSI Revolution.” nology in view of the influence of the In this issue, we present Prof. We are very fortunate for the sup- original papers and/or patents. Conway’s feature article, “Remi- port of our Executive Director Michael Thank you very much for reading niscences of the VLSI Revolution: Kelly, who joined the IEEE Solid-State IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine. Circuits Society in April 2012, and for Please send comments and “Letters Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2012.2228430 our Tutorials Editor Willy Sansen and to the Editor” to marylanzerotti@ Date of publication: 24 December 2012 Technology Editor Jake Baker.
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