Design of special-purpose VLSI chips: Example and opinions

This paper identifies important steps in the design of a special purpose VLSI chip, and argues that the most crucial step is the design of the underlying algorithm. Because the algorithm determines the degree of parallelism and pipelining that is possible, it largely determines the performance of the chip. Furthermore, if the underlying algorithm has the right properties such as modularity and regularity, then the rest of the design should be routine and thus takes little effort. These claims are supported by a concrete example--the design of an efficient pattern matching chip, which has been fabricated for testing.