Recent Advances in System-Level Interconnect Prediction.
Dirk Stroobandt · 2000
The exciting, new field of System-Level Interconnect Prediction emerged from research of the early 1970's but it took until 1999 before a cohesive research community for interconnect prediction was established. New research results are becoming available and the last couple of years have brought both more interest and more progress in the field than in the thirty years before. This paper is an introduction to the field and provides an overview of some of the recent advances in system-level interconnect prediction. 1 Introduction As mainstream processors surpass gigahertz global clock frequencies and new design and process technologies enable even higher performance, much attention is directed toward managing the influence of interconnects in deep submicron designs. Today, interconnects are the limiting factor for both performance and density, i.e., the value and the cost of the VLSI system. Guided by better models of interconnect performance at the atomistic and grain levels of...