Summary

The design of today’s integrated circuits is becoming complex enough to warrant the development of a planning capability whereby the possible courses of action and the associated consequences are investigated before undertaking the design and fabrication process. The number of options or alternatives and the associated maze of interdependencies has increased to the point that the decision-making process is quickly becoming unmanageable. The designer can no longer do the critical analysis in his head and the expense of executing the design process precludes the designer from finding a solution on a “trial-and-error” basis.