Overview

Many computer applications have come to have a complexity far beyond the capability of computer hardware currently available through commercial vendors. What is called the "software crisis" comes from an almost desparate effort to fill this growing gap by software. Software engineering is aiming at easing the crisis by providing various disciplined software tools and methodologies, and has been partially successful in filling the gap.
This volume is the result of our effort to go beyond the software engineering approach. Our goal is to remove the gap rather than fill it by cost effectively building application processors in hardware. Examples of the concepts, disciplines, methodologies, tools, architecture, design and implementation needed for such application-oriented computers are presented by leading experts invited from related technical areas. VLSI (very large scale integration) is the hardware technology which can easily cope with any degree of complexity normally expected in an application.
This volume focuses on VLSI-related engineering as it is used to produce application-oriented computers. This focus is expected to give further technical direction, integrity and uniformity to the papers. This VLSI engineering approach can lead computer technology beyond software engineering, and hence can contribute to overcoming the software crisis.