Elsevier

Integration

Volume 4, Issue 2, June 1986, Pages 175-183
Integration

Integration letter
Contributions to VLSI computational complexity theory from bounds on current density

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-9260(86)80006-2Get rights and content

Abstract

The grid models of VLSI algorithms embody the common assumption that time delays on wires of length L are O(log L). We show that the hierarchical model of driver circuitry responsible for this result is restricted, in its application to asymptotic complexity determinations, by the physical upper bound on current density in the wires for any VLSI technology. Unlike other alternative models of wire delay concerned with resistive properties of the wires or transmission line effects, there are no practical technological fixes for current density limits. It is suggested that the appropriate model for physically realizable VLSI algorithms should contain asymptotic wire delays that are Q(L).

Section snippets

From 1971 to 1974, he was employed at UMIST as Mullard Research Fellow, and from 1974 to 1975, he was with the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. From 1975 to 1980 he was on the faculty at Columbia University, New York, and was a member of the Columbia Radiation Laboratory. He has been an in-house instructor at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill and in Holmdel, NJ, and a consultant to the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY. He is presently a Professor in

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    From 1971 to 1974, he was employed at UMIST as Mullard Research Fellow, and from 1974 to 1975, he was with the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. From 1975 to 1980 he was on the faculty at Columbia University, New York, and was a member of the Columbia Radiation Laboratory. He has been an in-house instructor at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill and in Holmdel, NJ, and a consultant to the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY. He is presently a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, with research interests in computer architecture and VLSI, the physics and technology of semiconductor devices, CAD and design automation, digital signal processing, and the relationship between physics and computation. Dr. Card is a member of the IEEE, the ACM, the American Physical Society, the New York Academy of Sciences, and Sigma Xi. He is the recipient of an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for 1984-85.

    His research interests include the physics of computation, computability and computer architectures. Since 1984 he has also been a consultant to CANCAD Technology Inc. Mr. Pries was the recent recipient of the Sigma Xi Student Research Award (Manitoba Chapter). Mr. Pries is a member of the IEEE Computer Society and the Association of Computing Machinery.

    He received his Bachelor'sdegree in Electrical Engineering in 1981, Master's degree 1983, and hisDoctorate in 1985, all from the University of Manitoba. He is currently anassistant professor in Electrical Engineering also at the University ofManitoba. Research interests include the Physics of VLSI, fabriciation,and IC design.

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