1 Introduction. - 1. 1 Benefits of VLSI System Planning. - 1. 2 VLSI System Planning Overview. - 1. 3 Comparisons to Previous Related Efforts. - 1. 4 Organization of Book. - 2 Alternatives Exploration. - 2. 1 Formalizing Design Knowledge. - 2. 2 Hierarchy: Controlling Complexity. - 2. 3 Constraints. - 2. 4 Delaying Design Decisions. - 2. 5 Backtracking: Changing Design Decisions. - 3 Design Assistance. - 3. 1 Advice. - 3. 2 Prediction. - 4 General Software Architecture. - 4. 1 User Interface. - 4. 2 Conventional/AI Software Integration. - 4. 3 The Knowledge Base. - 5 A DSP VLSI System Planner. - 5. 1 Algorithmic and Architectural Issues. - 5. 2 Logical Level Issues. - 5. 3 Circuit and Physical Level Issues. - 6 A DSP Prediction Methodology. - 6. 1 Algorithmic Level Predictions. - 6. 2 Architectural Level Predictions. - 6. 3 Logical Level Predictions. - 6. 4 Physical Level Predictions. - 6. 5 Experimental Results. - 7 Yoda: Sample Planning Session. - 7. 1 Constraints and Delaying Decisions. - 7. 2 Advice and Consistency Constraints. - 7. 3 Qualitative and Quantitative Advice. - 7. 4 Context Switching and Subplans. - 7. 5 Backtracking. - 7. 6 Invoking Prediction Models. - 8 Summary. - 8. 1 Future Work. - A Commercial Digital Filter ICs. - A. 1 TRW. - A. 2 NCR. - A. 3 Harris. - A. 4 Zoran. - A. 5 Inmos. - A. 6 Motorola. - B Software Implementation Details. - B. 1 Bicorporal Architecture. - B. 2 Alternatives Exploration Subsystem. - B. 2. 1 Representing Plans. - B. 2. 2 Representing Constraints. - B. 3 Design Assistance Subsystem. - B. 3. 1 Representing Knowledge Sources. - B. 4 Code Management. - Biblography. Language: English