Challenges and Opportunities for Electronic Design Automation in the Next Decade

电子设计自动化（EDA）是我们今天所享受的信息处理进步的关键技术。在过去的50年里，EDA提供了基本的设计原理和工具，使集成电路芯片上的晶体管数量呈指数级增长。没有EDA，十亿晶体管芯片就不可能成为现实！然而，EDA领域正面临着一些独特的挑战。一方面，晶体管缩放的物理限制限制了晶体管密度的未来指数增长。集成电路制造的高昂成本和EDA工具的过度复杂性使得设计自动化创新很难付诸实践。另一方面，最近机器学习和人工智能应用以及新兴架构和技术的兴起，需要更多定制的解决方案来设计电子系统。该项目旨在支持一个名为“未来十年电子设计自动化的挑战和机遇”的研讨会，旨在汇集来自EDA领域学术界和工业界的各种领先研究人员，讨论应对EDA挑战的战略和战术。讲习班组织者将作出协调一致的努力，邀请妇女、少数群体和其他代表性不足的群体参加讲习班。一些受邀的演讲者和小组成员将来自这些团体。研讨会将讨论与培训下一代EDA研究人员的课程设计，研究生和本科生的特殊培训计划的开发以及学术界和工业界之间的合作有关的关键问题。该项目和相关的研讨会将探讨首要问题的答案，包括但不限于（i）什么是高风险和高回报的研究课题，（ii）EDA研究应该积极寻求与哪些其他邻近领域合作，（iii）鉴于EDA研究的跨学科性质，科学发现应该传播到哪里，以产生最大的影响，及（iv）研究经费应来自何处，以及应如何分配，以鼓励更多具变革性的研究。最终报告将在EDA领域的一份主要期刊上发表和传播。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Electronic design automation (EDA) is a key enabling technology for the advances in information processing that we are enjoying today. EDA has provided fundamental design principles and tools empowering the exponential increase of the number of transistors on an integrated circuit chip over the past 50 years. Without EDA, it would not have been possible for billion-transistor chips to be a reality! However, the field of EDA is facing some unique challenges. On one hand, physical limit of transistor scaling limits future exponential growth in transistor density. The exorbitant cost of integrated circuit fabrication and the excessive complexity of EDA tools make it difficult to bring design automation innovations to practice. On the other hand, the recent rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence applications and emerging architectures and technologies calls for more customized solutions to designing electronic systems. This project seeks to support a workshop, titled Challenges and Opportunities for Electronic Design Automation in the Next Decade, aims to assemble a diverse group of leading researchers, from both academia and industry in the field of EDA, to discuss strategies as well as tactics in tackling the challenges in EDA. The workshop organizers will make a concerted effort to invite women, minority and other underrepresented groups to participate the workshop. Some invited speakers and panelists will be from these groups. The workshop will address key issues related to curriculum design for training the next generation EDA researchers, development of special training programs for graduate and undergraduate students, and collaboration between academia and industry. This project and the associated workshop will explore answers to overarching questions including but not limited to (i) what are the high-risk and high-return research topics, (ii) what other adjacent fields that EDA research should aggressively seek collaboration with, (iii) where the scientific findings should be disseminated in order to have the greatest impact given the interdisciplinary nature of EDA research, and (iv) where the research funding should come from and how it should be distributed to encourage more transformative research. A final report will be produced and disseminated in a premier journal in the EDA field.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.