Text-Only CSIS Pages
In the semiconductor industry today, as more information gets
packed into smaller areas,
the technical challenges of design and reliability mount. Industry turns to academic
research for help in solving these complex problems.
In the field of Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI), the Center for Semicustom Integrated
Systems (CSIS) links industry with academic researchers. The Center's comprehensive research
and education programs help satisfy the growing need for leading-edge design tools and methods
in
the VLSI industry.
As the industry expands, so too will the ways in which the CSIS can contribute. The Center's
ultimate missions are to accelerate economic growth, to improve products and processes, and to
integrate the results of academic research into VLSI industry developments.
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In 1984, faculty members within the University's
Department of Electrical Engineering envisioned
an
interdisciplinary research center dedicated to the design and analysis of digital
systems.
Since then, the Center for Semicustom Integrated Systems has grown to become an
internationally
visible and respected research group.
Areas of expertise represented by CSIS principals include computer architecture,
integrated circuit technology, fault-tolerant design, circuit and
system
testing technology, design automation, VLSI algorithms, reliability
anaylsis,
and performance modeling.
Information on the current faculty,
staff, and students participating in the
Center
can be obtained on these pages.
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The CSIS promotes technology transfer between academia and
industry by direct involvement with
industrial sponsors, creating experimental
prototypes,
designing preproduction systems, and improving design and process methodologies. These
collaborations
serve four important purposes.
- They provide real-world experiences for CSIS students, who learn by solving actual
engineering problems.
- They streamline the transfer of technology and new ideas from academia to
industry.
- They provide industrial sponsors with state-of-the-art technologies, often resulting
in new products.
- They provide validation for the methodologies developed by the CSIS, a step that is
crucial to the overall success of CSIS's research program.
The CSIS interacts with industrial sponsors on prototype development and research projects.
Actual
prototype development exposes both the strengths and weaknesses of proposed methodologies
and often
suggests directions for future research. Research helps industrial sponsors build a base of
knowledge which may ultimately support new products or improve existing
products.
Interactions with industry contribute to the CSIS's educational mission, forcing CSIS researchers
to remain up-to-date on techniques and continually adding valuable expertise to the
infrastructure.
Students perform a large amount of the CSIS's work, an arrangement that continues to prove
mutually
beneficial both for them and for the CSIS's industrial sponsors, who often hire them after
graduation.
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The CSIS offers an interdisciplinary approach within the
University of Virginia School of Engineering
and Applied
Science, with faculty and graduate students primarily from the Departments of
Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science.
Research scientists devote their full time to conceptualizing and managing CSIS projects. Much
of
the research is conducted by graduate students
pursuing M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering,
working under the guidance and innovative leadership of the CSIS's
faculty and research staff.
Professional areas of expertise include fault-tolerant design; design automation; test generation
and application; circuit and system design; hardware description languages; placement and
wiring
techniques; reliability; computer architecture; software engineering; and engineering for the
disabled. Nearby faculty contacts, on which CSIS often draws, bring expertise in areas such as
communication theory, semiconductor device theory, image and signal processing, and
mechanical
design.
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Because of its role within the University of Virginia
and its alliance with Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, the
CSIS has the resources necessary to initiate and coordinate joint research projects with
government and industry.
CSIS researchers have access to the many resources including networked, high-speed
workstations
with high-resolution graphics capability, advanced VLSI testing equipment, surface mount
prototyping, and high-speed logic analysis systems.
The CSIS also owns equipment dedicated to support specific research in design automation and
fault-tolerant design. Numerous software packages are available to the CSIS for design
description,
digital and analog simulation, test pattern generation, system analysis, reliability analysis, and
VLSI design. The software tools come from leading-edge suppliers of Electronic Design
Automation (EDA) solutions.
With access to the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) Metal Oxide Semiconductor
Implementation
System (MOSIS) service, the CSIS can implement IC designs using leading-edge processes at a
reasonable
cost.
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The Center for Semicustom Integrated Systems has since 1986 been
designated a Technology
Development Center of the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology
(CIT),
a nonprofit corporation that promotes the interchange of research results and ideas between
academia and the marketplace in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
As part of that larger goal, the CSIS is devoted to providing industrial and government
sponsors with advanced methods for designing,
validating,
and testing integrated digital systems. The CSIS's more sophisticated VLSI designs, conceived
with fault tolerance and testability in mind, enhance productivity, lower costs, secure
manageable product life cycles, and enhance the future of the VLSI industry within the
Commonwealth.
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Virginia's Center for Innovative
Technology (CIT) is a non-profit corporation created by the
Commonwealth in 1984 to harness the immense research and development capabilities of
Virginia's
historic research universities, and mobilize them as resources for industry. The Center for
Semicustom
Integrated Systems is one of eleven Technology Development Centers (TDCs) supported by CIT
at
Virginia's research universities to advance economic development through technology. TDCs
target
technology fields, including microelectronics, fiber optics, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications,
electrochemical processes, and ceramics, in which Virginia's universities continue to attract
world-renowned researchers and outstanding graduate students and which represent sources of
strength and growth in the state's economy.
CIT invests in top-quality research with market potential and helps commercialize that research
by supporting partnerships between companies and university researchers. Under CIT's research
program, funds provided CIT by the state legislature can cover up to half the costs of research
at CSIS in projects cosponsored by companies, when that research has clear economic value to
the
state. With its headquarters in an architecturally unique building near Dulles International
Airport outside Washington, CIT has supported state-of-the-art technology development by
funding more than 700 cosponsored research projects, linking university researchers with
companies
across the state.
CIT also can facilitate the development of strategic partnerships between companies and the
CSIS
to seek research support under certain federal grant programs and can provide matching funds to
support this research at CSIS. The Center also has arrangements in place that facilitate the
transfer of technologies from federal laboratories and agencies, including NASA and the Naval
Research Laboratory. CIT can expedite access to federal technologies and specialized equipment
and, in some cases, provide companies with on-site assistance from federal "bench scientists"
to facilitate the technology transfer process.
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At the University of
Virginia, where education and research are highly
integrated, the Center for Semicustom Integrated Systems provides the primary learning
environment
for graduate students in computer engineering.
Faculty members from the Departments of Electrical
Engineering
and Computer Science offer introductory and
advanced
courses in computer engineering technology, thus emphasizing an interdisciplinary approach.
CSIS degree programs introduce the student to scholarly research, hands-on projects, cooperative
ventures with industry, and a teamwork approach.
Examples of CSIS course offerings include: Advanced Switching Theory, Introduction to VLSI,
Microelectronic Integrated Circuit Fabrication, Reliable Digital Design and Analysis, Digital
and Computer System Design, Performance Modeling, Reliability Engineering, Design and
Analysis
of Algorithms, and Software Engineering.
In each year, CSIS graduates approximately 12 Masters degrees and 5 Ph.D. degrees. In
addition,
the Electrical Engineering faculty publishes approximately 10 journal papers and 25 conference
papers in a year.
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Six graduate degrees in electrical engineering and computer science
are
available to CSIS participants. To receive the Master of Science in Electrical Engineering or
Computer Science, degree candidates must write a thesis. The programs leading to the Master of
Engineering in Electrical Engineering and the Master in Computer Science (typically pursued by
individuals currently working in industry) do not require a thesis but do require additional
coursework. Individual programs of study can be developed on topics such as digital system
architecture and design, reliable systems, VLSI algorithms, and VLSI technology.
Students may also pursue doctoral degrees in both electrical engineering and computer science,
with programs of advanced research specifically tailored to the individual. Doctoral programs
normally emphasize combined work in mathematics, computer science, and electrical
engineering.
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The University of Virginia has offered regular study in engineering
for over
150 years, beginning in 1827, coinciding with the rise of industry in the South and paralleling
the growth of the engineering profession.
As the School's graduate programs have steadily grown, so has the support provided to graduate
research activities. Augmented by a rapidly growing off-Grounds satellite educational program,
the School provides instruction in 54 key areas, thus serving vital needs in curriculum
development and continuing education for engineers in industry throughout the
Commonwealth.
The continuing evolution of technology has led not only to a strengthened engineering
profession,
with increased vigor in the applied sciences, but also to entirely new degree programs and
research ventures, particularly in the areas of the social impact of technology. As
cross-disciplinary
opportunities for research spring up, new research centers take shape to explore them. The
Center
for Semicustom Integrated Systems, along with the Center for Computer-Aided Engineering, the
Center
for Electrochemical Sciences and Engineering, and the Center for Risk Management of
Engineering
Systems, represent a few of the cross-disciplinary research and education centers here in
Virginia's
School of Engineering. By supporting study within these new fields, the University is actively
working to improve productivity in the nation and the world.
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CSIS faculty participate in the Virginia Cooperative Graduate
Engineering
Program, an academic network of degree programs from five state universities including the
University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. Computer engineering courses with interactive audio
are broadcast to convenient classroom sites throughout the state.
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Research within the Center for Semicustom Integrated Systems
focuses on the design of complex large-scale digital systems.
Three interdependent technologies support this focus:
CSIS research also supports innovations in these core technologies through research within two
supporting technology fields: system design and design automation.
In today's VLSI industry, only interdisciplinary research in these core and supporting
technologies can lead to the design of high-performance, reliable digital systems.
Bringing these technologies together under the umbrella of the CSIS streamlines the digital
system design process and profoundly influences the quality of the resulting products. The CSIS
specializes in "end-to-end" system design, working all the way from concept to implementation,
including hardware and software design, integration, and testing.
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The Center for Semicustom Integrated Systems develops techniques
to incorporate
fault-tolerant features into integrated systems. From the simple to the most complex, integrated
systems of the future will depend on fault tolerance: design elements that assure continued
reliable
operation even when some component of a circuit or system fails.
Fault tolerance can involve simple parity for error detection, concurrent error detection, or even
more complex design redundancy, depending on the complexity of the system. Whatever the
method,
fault tolerance must enter early into the design phase. The techniques developed by CSIS
researchers
result in integrated systems with significantly greater reliability and testability, minimizing the
need for additional hardware.
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As circuit density has increased, the cost of testing an integrated
circuit
has increased too. Therefore test technology, integrally related to fault tolerance technology,
plays
an essential role in integrated circuit (IC) design and manufacture and, for that matter, in the cost
of IC components. CSIS researchers are seeking better ways to test ICs, boards, and systems by
finding techniques that require less surface area, demand less time, and present more accurate
results.
The modular approach to the design of VLSI systems, central to the CSIS mission, offers a
significant solution.
The CSIS develops modules that are themselves testable; when combined into integrated
systems, the
testable modules assure whole system testability. The CSIS also develops fault models and
technologies to
determine if a design is testable even before test pattern generation of fault simulation takes
place.
Design costs stay lower, thanks to these techniques. Since the redundacies needed for a
fault-tolerant system
make testing all the more difficult, the CSIS is developing techniques for disabling the
redundacies during
testing, then subsequently enabling them when the IC product goes into operation.
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Central to the activities of the Center for Semicustom Integrated
Systems
is research in key areas of VLSI design, including modeling and simulation, routing and
placement,
and techniques for efficient VLSI implementation. Complex VLSI design is accomplished with
state-of-the-art
design tools, efficient and effective algorithms, and languages sufficiently powerful to model
the most sophisticated hardware/software configuration.
Modeling and simulation often proceed early, at a high level of abstraction, even at the level of
pure
information flow with undefined function. When VLSI design considerations come early enough
in the process --
when system functions are still expressed as abstract data-flow models -- there is room to
interpret
portions of the system as software or hardware.
CSIS researchers are developing new methodologies and models that span the design space while
also developing
complex algorithms to solve specific problems. VLSI design research is necessary in the
implementation of the
CSIS's other two areas of strength: fault tolerance and test technologies.
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CSIS has a wide array of powerful laboratory facilities at its
disposal. The CSIS labs
use several different commercial electronic design automation (EDA) capabilities, including:
- Mentor Graphics tool suite (VHDL simulation, PCB layout, synthesis)
- Logic Modeling Smart Models
- Cascade silicon compiler
- Vantage VHDL simulator
- Quad signal integrity analysis system
In addition, the CSIS Integrated Circuit Lab has a
Hewlett Packard 82000 IC parametric tester for use by
CSIS researchers and students. Resources of the
Systems Integration Laboratory
include Tektronix DAS 9200 logic analysis systems, high speed digital storage oscilloscopes,
an SRT FPT surface mount rework station, and real-time in-circuit microprocessor emulators
(68XXX, 68HC11, PIC). CSIS
computational resources include:
- 8 SPARC 10
- 6 SPARC 2
- 2 SPARC 20
- 2 SPARC LX
- 1 HP 700
- 1 HP 300
- 6 HP X Terminals
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The University of Virginia was founded in 1819 by Thomas
Jefferson. As the first rector, Jefferson
presided over the school's governing body, the Board of Visitors. James Monroe and James
Madison both served on the board
in the school's early years, setting high standards for excellence which continue to characterize
the University today.
When classes began in 1825, with 68 students and a faculty of eight, the University of Virginia
embodied dramatic new ideas in
American higher education. Today, with 18,000 students on the Grounds, with a faculty of more
than 2,000, the University
continues to be a powerful force in academic and technological fields of research. Bachelors,
masters, and doctorate degrees
are offered within eighty fields and departments.
The University consistently draws praise in the national press and in nationwide analyses of
American higher education.
According to U.S. News and World Report, for example, it is one of only four public
institutions ranking within the
top 25 colleges and universities in the United States.
The city of Charlottesville and the county of Albermarle, located in the foothills of the Blue
Ridge Mountains of Central
Virginia, have a combined population just over 100,000. Light manufacturing, education,
tourism, agriculture, and retail
trade constitute the area's economic base.
Charlottesville is a thriving community, with new office buildings and shopping centers being
built, a convention center
downtown, and ample accomodations ranging from bed-and-breakfast inns to cosmopolitan
hotels. Fine restaurants appeal to
every taste and budget. A pedestrian mall downtown offers dining, shops, and night spots in a
historical section of the city.
Immediately accessible by US 29 and Interstate 64, connecting with Interstates 95 and 81,
Charlottesville is located 120 miles
from Washington, D.C., and 70 miles from Richmond. Railroad, bus, and direct air flights from
major cities serve the area.
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Last Modified: Jan. 13, 1997
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