What is VLSI

The Very Large Scale Integration era of Integrated Circuits (IC) began in the 1970s, when thousands of transistors were integrated into a single chip. More than a billion transistors can now be integrated on a single device. Although there was some effort to create a new name ULSI (Ultra-Large Scale Integration) for fine distinctions many years ago, the word “VLSI” is still used. Since its inception, this technology has given enormous benefits to our daily lives.

VLSI encompasses several aspects of integrated circuit design and manufacture., VLSI architecture design and optimization includes pre- and post-synthesis, simulation and verification, RTL (Register Transfer Language) coding, place and route, synthesis, timing analyses , timing closure, and multi-step semiconductor device fabrication including wafer processing, die preparation, IC packaging, and testing. As manufacturing technology improves year by year , hundreds of millions or even billions of transistors can be packed into a single chip.

As a result, larger and more complex systems may be combined into a single chip, known as a System-on-Chip (SoC), posing ever-increasing challenges for engineers to master their methodologies in all aspects of VLSI design. Practical applications for current SoC architecture are frequently speed hungry. The Ethernet standard, for example, has progressed from 10Mbps to 10Gbps. The 100Mbps Ethernet standard is now on its way.