COLLOQUIUM Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of South Carolina VLSI Systems Engineering: Challenges and Opportunities James P. Davis, Ph.D. Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of South Carolina Date: February 15, 2002 (Friday) Time: 3:30-4:30PM Place: Swearingen 1A03 (Faculty Lounge) Abstract We have entered a period of incredible acceleration of change in society. A large portion of this change has come as a result of the rippling effects brought about by the innovations and subsequent application of VLSI systems technology to a wide array of products and services. With trends towards increasing mobility, miniaturization, convergence and intelligence, the very definition of computing is changing. The intense pressure on VLSI component and systems designers in creating such systems against a backdrop of growing technical and economic constraints is daunting. This talk will present one area in which solutions to alleviate some of this pressure is being sought, through the development of technologies, methods, processes and tools for creating systems in silicon (or, Systems-On-a-Chip, SOC). The objective of SOC approaches is to better manage design complexity through applying better design planning and decision-making, and by using electronic systems design "best practices." These objectives challenge the electronics industry as a whole to create a new generation of methods and tools to help the systems design community address this growing disparity between device technology capacity (being aggravated further as we push from micro-electronics VLSI into the nano-electronics realm) and designer capability. In so doing, it is believed that increased levels of design reuse, more effective hardware-software co-design practices, greater integration of hardware and software-based functionality into convergent packaging, and greater availability of downstream electronic device knowledge earlier in the design process will enable more effective execution of the electronics systems design activity as a whole. Electronics systems make the "world go 'round" and SOC approaches promise to make electronic- based systems design much more manageable and effective in delivering the kinds of electronics- based products that drive the global economy. James P. Davis is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Carolina. Prior to joining the faculty, Dr. Davis had spent most of the past 25 years in industry as a design engineer, engineering manager and engineering technology executive with a number of globally-focused technology companies, including several tech start-ups. During his career, he has practiced his engineering discipline in applied R&D, working to balance the sometimes-conflicting objectives associated with scientific/engineering soundness and market-focused product development. Dr. Davis has published more than 35 papers in areas of VLSI design methods, Database design, Knowledge Acquisition for expert systems, Expert systems in manufacturing, and Object-oriented/agent- oriented design methods applied in Healthcare and other domains. He received his BSEE, MSEE and Ph.D. degrees from the University of South Carolina. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu engineering honor societies, and ACM, IEEE, AAAI and AMIA professional societies.