Integrated Circuit Design Project (18-525) is intended to provide the electrical and computer engineering student with IC design experience. It solidifies theoretical background and practical skills gained in 18-322. The primary stress of the 18-525 class will be on the IC design process as a whole. Such a process, seen as a sequence of design decisions, must lead to a design which optimizes a given objective function under a number of constraints. The optimum design must be achieved using a number of variables involving all levels of design abstraction and ranging between architecture choice and detail of the IC layout. Typical design objectives adopted in 18-525 designs will be IC performance (throughput, clock frequency, etc.) and typical constraints will be die size and minimum feature size. The second most important objective of 18-525 is to mimic a large design team environment in which individual designers must: (a) communicate precisely and efficiently his/her ideas and (b) utilize any feedback provided by the "design environment". This objective will be achieved through class presentations given by each student and by stressing the importance of design documentation. 4 hrs. class.
