Essential Issues in SOC Design

Due to advance in semiconductor manufacturing technology, integration of whole electronics system on a single chip is feasible. Starting with baseline CMOS logic, semiconductor wafer manufacturers have gradually added to their portfolio embedded memory (SRAM, OPT, Flash), mixed signal devices, RF devices, and even MEMS. Because it offers many advantages over traditional multiple-chip solutions, system-on-a-chip (SOC) has drawn great attention from both academia and industry. We expect an SOC solution to be smaller, less expense, more energy efficient, more reliable, etc. However, designing an SOC for successful mass production is much more complicated than that of traditional simpler logic, memory, or analog chips. This chapter outlines some important issues that face an SOC design team and give brief introduction to each chapter of this book