Introduction to Digital Systems: Modeling, Synthesis, and Simulation Using VHDL

1.10 FUTURE OF DIGITAL SYSTEMS

The latest microprocessors for home computing applications run at about 3 GHz. Most chips available commercially use the bulk-CMOS (complementary metal—oxide semiconductor) process to manufacture the transistor circuits. Also, most digital designs are synchronous in nature. Synchronous systems are also referred to as clocked systems. The latest commercially available chips are manufactured using the 90-nm process. Over the next few years, companies expect to move to 65 nm or lower. Some experts in the semiconductor industry see an asynchronous future for digital designs. Asynchronous systems are digital systems that do not use a clock to time events. Chip size has been shrinking continuously, and designs have become more complex than ever. Emerging technologies such as hybrid ASIC and LPGA (laser programmable gate array) make the future exciting. New materials, design methodologies, better fabrication facilities, and newer applications are certainly making things interesting. The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) predicts that the worldwide per capita production of transistors will soon be 1 billion per person.

In particular, FPGAs are leading the way to a technological revolution. Many emerging applications in the communication, computing, and consumer electronics industries demand that their functionality stays flexible after the system has been manufactured. Such flexibility is required in order to cope with changing user requirements, improvements ...