That paragraph + illustration is one of the simplest, concise, easy-to-grasp descriptions of IC design process I've come across. Nice!
Now the reverse: what I'd really love is a free (libre) automated toolset to go from IC die shot(s) -> transistors+interconnects -> gate-level schematic (logic gates & flipflops). Person interested in RE a chip's function can take it from there.
To me, the whole "here's a section of the die photo" to "that's an n-bit adder" etc step is like black magic. Not to mention extremely tedious.
Get that to a higher-level view easy, and it would be much more doable to work out function of each element.
Comments
(A crash course in how chips get made)
That paragraph + illustration is one of the simplest, concise, easy-to-grasp descriptions of IC design process I've come across. Nice!
Now the reverse: what I'd really love is a free (libre) automated toolset to go from IC die shot(s) -> transistors+interconnects -> gate-level schematic (logic gates & flipflops). Person interested in RE a chip's function can take it from there.
To me, the whole "here's a section of the die photo" to "that's an n-bit adder" etc step is like black magic. Not to mention extremely tedious.
Get that to a higher-level view easy, and it would be much more doable to work out function of each element.