ABSTRACT
The term very large scale integration (VLSI) refers to a technology through which it is possible to implement large circuits consisting of up to or more than a million transistors on semiconductor wafers, primarily silicon. Without the help of VLSI technology the advances made in computers and in the Internet would not have been possible. The VLSI technology has been successfully used to build large digital systems such as microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), systolic arrays, large capacity memories, memory controllers, I/O controllers, and interconnection networks. The number of transistors on a chip, depending on the application can range from tens (an op-amp) to hundreds of millions (a large capacity DRAM). The Intel Pentium III microprocessor with 256 kbyte level two cache contains approximately 28 million transistors while the Pentium III microprocessor with a 2 Mbyte level two cache contains 140 million transistors [1]. Circuit designs, where a very large number of transistors are integrated on a single semiconductor die, are termed VLSI designs.
