Vlsi and Technological Innovation

Innovation in infant disciplines occurs most rapidly and successfully when a large number of small groups proceed independently under the motivation of market opportunity. In a few years, a substantial fraction of the engineering work force will have a working knowledge of LSI design. At the same time, fabrication areas are becoming more and more capital intensive. What is needed is a clean, standard interface between a multitude of small diverse VLSI design groups and a few state-of-the-art fabrication suppliers. A proposal for such an interface is presented in this article.