Physical Design of Cmos Integrated Circuits Using L-Edit

L-Edit is a CAD tool, specifically a layout tool for VLSI Design. It consists of a set of software tools that produce the final manufacturing specifications for a chip design. All matters pertaining to the geometry of the layout, its precise dimensions, and design rules for conforming to desired specifications are included. L-Edit is not a stand-alone product; it is intended to be used in conjunction with a main text. A tutorial comes with the software tool showing the student how to do CMOS chip design using these tools. VLSI design is done on the computer. It isnt very useful to look at the pretty four- color plates that adorn textbooks on the subject. Short of allowing the student to send their chop design to a foundry to be fabricated, this product gives you everything else the big boys do in the real world. Up to now, the only programs similar to L-Edit were available on workstations. Schools have to pay a great deal to purchase and maintain site license software. L-Edit runs on the PC with minimum system demands. Students will not need to wait for a seat or stand in line to use the workstation. The students can do real design anywhere at any time.

John P. Uyemura is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, late of Georgia Institute of Technology.