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. 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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.