Is there anything in VLSI layout other than “pushing polygons”? (9)

Is there anything in VLSI layout other than “pushing polygons”? (9)
by Dan Clein on 05-14-2018 at 7:00 am

I moved from real layout work to management so I had little or no “hands-on” layout in my responsibility but I was very close to my team challenges in all 5 locations. During my 13 years in PMC Sierra I was involved in many initiatives some technical and some in developing relations with vendors. The biggest difference was that MOSAID… Read More


Is there anything in VLSI layout other than “pushing polygons”? (8)

Is there anything in VLSI layout other than “pushing polygons”? (8)
by Dan Clein on 04-11-2018 at 12:00 pm

The year is 1999 and I decided that is time to try something else in layout. In 1989 in Israel I was part of the biggest chip in the world, the Motorola DSP9600. In 1998 in Canada I was part of the biggest Synchronous DRAM in the world, it was time to try analog/mixed signal/RF projects.

The opportunity came from PMC Sierra who already had… Read More


Is there anything in VLSI layout other than “pushing polygons”? (7)

Is there anything in VLSI layout other than “pushing polygons”? (7)
by Dan Clein on 03-08-2018 at 12:00 pm

The time is 1995 and my mandate as Layout Manager is to grow my team. I advertised everywhere but there were no experienced people in Canada that I can hire so the solution was back to training. I was the trainer a few times in Israel in MSIL but there we had a very organised material for layout, UNIX, software, etc. We had exercises, tests,… Read More


Is there anything in VLSI layout other than “pushing polygons”? (6)

Is there anything in VLSI layout other than “pushing polygons”? (6)
by Dan Clein on 02-05-2018 at 12:00 pm

I am very sorry but I have to break the flow of sharing initiatives, to reiterate the reason for these articles and maybe amplify the message these articles should promote.

I got a few inquiries from LinkedIn connections, who read the previous articles, with a very interesting point of view. This proves that after 5 articles some … Read More


Is there anything in VLSI layout other than “pushing polygons”? (5)

Is there anything in VLSI layout other than “pushing polygons”? (5)
by Dan Clein on 01-11-2018 at 12:00 pm

Being new in Ottawa and trying to get some momentum towards automation in full custom layout I was telling industry people that I am interested to work with everybody to move this agenda forward. My Director of Engineering at that time, Peter Gillingham, took me to visit Carleton University in Ottawa. One of his professor friends,… Read More


Is there anything in VLSI layout other than “pushing polygons”? (4)

Is there anything in VLSI layout other than “pushing polygons”? (4)
by Dan Clein on 12-19-2017 at 12:00 pm

The year is now 1991 and in search for a more peaceful life we decided to move to Canada. At that time, very few companies had advanced flows in VLSI but Ottawa having BNR, Northern Telecom, Mitel, etc., looked to be the most promising place. After a few hiccups in finding a job, I landed in MOSAID, a small company with35 people at that … Read More