Analysis,  Synthesis, Verification  of  Electronic  Systems
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley

Design Technology has undergone major changes over a quarter century, the period during which the Berkeley CAD group has grown from a few professors and graduate students to a major presence in the life of the Department of EECS. The group has had a major influence in the field in terms of both research results and industrial impact.

The group has evolved from circuit simulation and optimization techniques in the 1970's and early 1980's (e.g., SPICE, RELAX, DELIGHT, DELIGHT.SPICE) to automatic place and route (e.g., TimberWolf, YACR, Chameleon, Mighty, Zorro, Mosaico) and logic synthesis (Espresso, Espresso-MV, Espresso Exact, MIS, SIS) in the 1980's and early 1990's. Lately, the emphasis of the group has moved to

¸        Hybrid systems as a modeling tool for automotive control problems;

¸        System level design methodologies for embedded software and systems with particular emphasis on automotive applications. The POLIS systems originated from early work in 1988 and evolved into the Metropolis system under development. The interest in design methods and design drivers is demonstrated also by the work on analog design methods and flows and the participation to the BWRC pico-radio project.

¸        Platform-based design that has been theorized by the group and its extension to the PARADES initiative in Europe. Platform-based design has had a major impact in research and electronic system design.

¸        Deep Submicron designs with particular emphasis on time closure issues due to the ôlong-wireö problem, Electromagnetic compatibility problems and substrate noise.

• The characteristics of the approach followed by the group are:

  • Emphasis on bridging theory and applications;

  • Formal methods whenever possible;

  • Strong interactions with Industrial Partners. For example, the early interactions with Harris Semiconductors, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and Microelectronics, ST Microelectronics and Intel have been the essential ingredients in the work on simulation, optimization, layout and logic synthesis. The interaction with Magneti Marelli, Cadence Design Systems, Philips, BMW, ST Microelectronics have been instrumental in the development of the methods and approaches for system level design.

  • Collaboration with industrial and academic partners worldwide.

Users with accounts on this website may use CVS to edit this page .