Application specific integrated circuit design on a PC platform

Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) are most commonly designed on high end computer platforms, such as the SUN workstation. This paper describes a cost-effective method of designing ASICs on PCS. With the rapidly increasing power of the PC, and the ease of communication through the Internet, today it is possible to run some of popular VLSI CAD packages at a much lower cost. Today, at the University of Southern Mississippi the software package MAGIC has been used for that purpose on PC based stations. This paper starts with an overview of ASIC design on PC platforms and its impact on industry and academia. The software and hardware requirements and the techniques needed to acquire VLSI capabilities on a PC are examined. This is followed by a comparison of the available VLSI software in the market and its suitability for the class environment.