VLSI chapter 1 UPDATED Exam Questions and CORRECT Answers

VLSI chapter 1 UPDATED Exam
Questions and CORRECT Answers
IC - CORRECT ANSWER - Integrated Circuit
incorporates and interconnects a multiude of miniature electronic devices (transistors) on a single
piece of SD material (silicon)


pad - CORRECT ANSWER - connector on a die that is intended to be wired or otherwise
electrically connected to a package pin.


PCB - CORRECT ANSWER - printed circuit board



Die size - CORRECT ANSWER - poor metric -> use "GE" or "Transistor count" instead



GE - CORRECT ANSWER - Gate equivalents-> two input NAND gate. corresponds to
four MOSFETs in static CMOS


MOSFET - CORRECT ANSWER - metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor



GE of a Flip-Flop - CORRECT ANSWER - ~7 GE



Silicon vs Silicone - CORRECT ANSWER - Silicon: Si, chemical element with atomic
number 14
Silicone: broad family of polymers of Si.


SSI (incl. GEs of logic + bits of memory) - CORRECT ANSWER - small-scale
integration.
1...10

, MSI (incl. GEs of logic + bits of memory) - CORRECT ANSWER - medium-scale
integration.
10...100


LSI (incl. GEs of logic + bits of memory) - CORRECT ANSWER - large-scale integration.
100...10'000


VLSI (incl. GEs of logic + bits of memory) - CORRECT ANSWER - very-large-scale
integration.
10'000...1'000'000


ULSI (incl. GEs of logic + bits of memory) - CORRECT ANSWER - ultra-large-scale
integration.
1'000'000...


Circuit complexity - CORRECT ANSWER - expressed by GE of logic and storage
capacity in bits


General-purpose IC - CORRECT ANSWER - simple or generic purpose of an IC, such
that it's been widly used (adder, FF, RAM, ROM, DSP). typically sold in huge quantities.


DSP - CORRECT ANSWER - digital signal processor



ASIC - CORRECT ANSWER - Application-specific integrated circuit. desigend with a
particular purpose. also known as "glue logic" (bus drivers, decvorders, MUX, registers,
interfaces)


SoC - CORRECT ANSWER - System-on-a-Chip