The evolution of electronic systems is pushing traditional silicon designers into areas that require new domains of expertise. In addition to the design of complex hardware, System-on-Chip (SoC) design requires software devel- ment, operating systems and new system architectures. Future SoC designs will resemble a miniature on-chip distributed computing system combining many types of microprocessors, re-configurable fabrics, application-specific hardware and memories, all communicating via an on-chip inter-connection network. Designing good SoCs will require insight into these new types of...

Power consumption becomes the most important design goal in a wide range of electronic systems. There are two driving forces towards this trend: continuing device scaling and ever increasing demand of higher computing power. First, device scaling continues to satisfy Moore's law via a conventional way of scaling (More Moore) and a new way of exploiting the vertical integration (More than Moore). Second, mobile and IT convergence requires more computing power on the silicon chip than ever. Cell phones are now evolving towards mobile PC. PCs and data centers are becoming commodities in house...