Special Session 2: Analog Design and Layout Automation Reality or Mirage?

Digital design automation has reached unprecedented levels, where complete chips can be synthesized from high-level specifications down to layout. The analog side, however, is still very far from this goal. Many research efforts to automate analog design and layout have been made over the past 30 years, during which numerous industrial tools have emerged. Unfortunately, most of them haven抰 accomplished enough widespread to be mainstream as in the digital case. In this special session, authors will try to answer the following questions through their papers: Is the analog design automation achievable in the near future or is it just a mirage? Which is more practical, generic tools or specific tools and/or design flows for specific types of circuits? Does it make sense to automate the whole design process or is it more appropriate to use point tools for specific tasks in the design cycle?