Trends in digital system design
Forces
- cost (cheaper), size (smaller), weight (lighter), power (lower)
- time-to-market (shorter)
- upgradeability (in-the-field)
- recyclability (reusable parts)
- ubiquity (anywhere, everywhere, and highly task-specific)
- standardization of interfaces (leverage)
Effects
- increased use of high-level languages
- high-level specifications
- automatic synthesis tools (hardware and software compilers)
- programmable hardware (quick to prototype, reconfigurable)