The Quick INQ guide to designing chips

THIS IS not meant to be an in depth article covering every minute aspect of chip design, but it is meant to take away some of the mystery of what happens between a thought entering an engineer’s head to a design being produced in silicon for the first time. Since I am most familiar with the graphics market, I will cover their little design strategies. While other chips may have a slightly different design methodology, from 10,000 feet up, they generally look the same, except in the fine details.