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Tightly integrated computer engineering workstations provide engineers with means of increasing productivity tremendously. Work-station vendors are offering sophisticated software on stand-alone high-resolution-graphics systems, while vendors of other computer equipment are entering the market with similar systems. Demand for such computer-aided design (CAD) and engineering (CAE) systems should double within the next five years. Vendors are quickly being drawn into the market because of simplified microprocessor design and sophisticated application software. Large companies like IBM, AT&T, and Digital should attract a large share of the software vendors with their hardware. Several vendors have recently met the competition with specialized hardware for simulation. Other subsystems in CAE workstations are being implemented with specialized architectures and custom devices. Though systems are advanced, users still will have to tailor them to their own specific needs. Productivity can be improved by including expert systems in the application software. Productivity may even have to be redefined to deal with CAE systems. Diagrams and graphs illustrate the design process and benefits of CAE systems, as well as market statistics.

As mentioned at this year's International Solid State Circuits Conference, semiconductor engineers are experimenting with denser memories, more complex VLSI, and alternative processes. Conventional technologies will limit dynamic RAM VLSI chips to 2-Mbits. But using different technologies and processes, an upper limit of 22-Mbits can be theoretically reached. A memory-cell design based on charge-coupled technology would probably be used. However, additional safety margins must be built into these devices to minimize soft errors induced by alpha particles. Numerous devices using gallium arsenide technology were also featured at the conference.

This year's International Solid State Circuits Conference featured new roles and process technologies for microprocessors. Current microprocessors use between 40 and 70 per cent of their surface area for control. However, researchers have developed 32-Bit RISC microprocessors that use only 10 per cent of the surface for control, with the remaining area left for extra registers. The devices use Mead-Conway layout rules, a five mask n-MOS process and fit into an area as small as 171 by 304 mils. Special purpose chips designed for speech-syhthesis, modems, and imagers were also featured.

Several new and interesting features were revealed at this year's International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. As experimental RAMs reach 1-megabit capacity, engineers are beginning to explore the theoretical limits of current techniques. Storage cell size must be continually balanced with cell capacitance to provide the right match between bit density and detectable voltage. Engineers are also capable of supplying data at very high speeds - such as IBM's 256-k metal-gate dynamic RAM set up as a 64-k by 4, but can be switched to 125-k by 2 or 256-k by 1. Toshiba is offering a 256-k E-PROM with a total programming time of only 100 ms.

The latest developments in natural language computer interface will be covered in a session at the upcoming National Computer Conference entitled 'Communicating with Data Bases in English'. A representative from Artificial Intelligence Corp. will discuss the company's Intellect system, which can be adapted for use with a variety of data bases. In a session entitled 'Writing Less Code: An Approachable Ideal', speakers will cover several new approaches to reducing the amount of coding required for applications programming. These methods include the use of reusable code, application generators, report writers, and the practice of allowing end-users to write their own custom programs.

Recent developments in analog integrated circuits will be covered in a session at this year's International Solid State Circuits Conference. New digital to analog converters, intended for use in digital audio systems, will be introduced by several designers. Two researchers from the University of California at Berkeley will discuss their digital to analog convertor, which is based on a new cellular design using a glitch-free n-channel-MOS circuit. A respesentative from Burr-Brown Research Corp. will describe the firm's new single-chip 16-bit digital to analog convertor, a bipolar chip that uses a segment approach with seven equally weighted current sources for the upper convertor. Two scientists from Philips Research Laboratories in the Netherlands will discuss their sample-and-hold circuit, an ultralow-distortion device based on a new frequency-compensation technique that uses a voltage amplifier and transconductance stage. Circuit diagrams of a digital to analog convertor and a high-speed amplifier are included, along with a photograph of a bipolar analog to digital converter.

This year's annual International Solid State Circuits Conference will feature several presentations on the new generation of dedicated chips being designed for various real-time tasks. A representative from NEC will discuss the company's new speech-recognition chip. It is based on a horizontal-microcoded pipelined architecture, with two processors, each handling distinct parts of a pattern-matching algorithm based on dynamic-programming methods. A paper presented jointly by the University of Illinois and IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center will describe an automated design and layout aid that takes into account both algorithm design and circuit layout. A representative from Fairchild & Instrument Corp. will discuss the company's new F9450, the first single-chip 16-bit microprocessor that used the Air Force's standard instruction set specified in MIL-STD-1750A. The bipolar chip uses a strip-layout method developed earlier by the company to pack 14,000 devices into 98,000 square mils. A block diagram of NEC's speech-recognition chip is included, along with a photograph of Fairchild's new microprocessor and a graph showing the relationship between speed and power consumption in the design package developed by IBM and the University of Illinois.

CACI has introduced a software package that allows system analysts to simulate computer systems without the need for a special simulation language. With Network II.5 analysts specify system configurations, simulate execution, and analyze the performance of arbitrary computer systems. The software is designed for use early in the specification and design cycle. It recognizes three primitive elements of a computer system: processing elements, data-transfer devices, and data-storage devices. Block diagrams illustrating the package's simulation method are included.

With several software development tools available, as well as special hardware, two areas of artificial intelligence have already provided useful programs. They are natural language and knowledge- based types of systems. Though useful, natural language systems are at times ambiguous, and queries are not always accepted by the data base. Knowledge systems consist of two parts: 1) a knowledge base, and 2) an inference engine for reaching conclusions. With its CATS-1 system, General Electric has a unique knowledge system for the repair and maintenance of their diesel locomotives. The knowledge base consists of the expertise of GE's top locomotive field service engineer. A listing of current systems is shown.

Led by increased density monolithic memory fabrication, several shifts are presented as taking place in the direction of advance of component technology. Instead of merely producing miniaturized, speedy chips a major goal noe is increased density. X-ray semiconductor manufacturing is taking over from the optical variety. 32-bit CMOS microprocessors are predicted. Even the 5-volt standard for power supplies may fall victim to the miniaturization trend. A diagram of a multiplier is shown.

The driving force behind major technological advances in the information-handling industry, worldwide, is attributed to the shift from industrial to information-based economies in developed countries. The need for industry leaders to be literate in computer technologies is stressed. Several major areas of research and advances in the industry are described. The proliferation of multiple vendors and overlapping products and the great competition in the industry are also detailed. A photograph taken by a satellite-based imagery of the aurora borealis is shown.

The United States is expected to spend upwards of $75 million this year to gain some of the benefits of artificial intelligence technology. To solve problems and to make decisions, AI methods use a knowledge base coupled with rules of inference that apply to a certain field. Already, there are about fifty knowledge-based systems either in use or for sale. Languages such as PROLOG and LISP are geared to structuring data as the program develops, unlike many of the number crunching languages available today.

UNIX is touted as rapidly becoming the operating system (OS) of choice for many computer systems. Invented at Bell Laboratories, UNIX promises to eliminate software incompatibility between otherwise differing systems, both micro and macro. The OS was, hitherto, used in universities where it became so popular that the graduates have made sure it followed them into industry.

Byron is a software package designed by Intermetrics Inc. It provides syntax diagnostics and source program documentation facilities for ANSI standard ADA program development. Byron is available, now, for IBM 370 computers at a cost of $75,000, and $25,000 for a compact version. Versions for VAX-11 are due out by the end of 1983.

Products conforming to standard graphics software syntax that is recommended by ANSI and ISO are reviewed. The graphics standard is called Graphical Kernel System (GKS) and was originally developed in West Germany. Tektronix Inc. is offering a package, PLOT 10 GKS, which is a set of FORTRAN 77 subroutines. Applications programs will call PLOT 10 GKS routines, and the resulting graphics can either pass through device handlers of the host machine to display devices or be mass-stored in a so-called metafile. Subsequent standardization will be of the device handlers and the metafile. The resulting virtual device and virtual-device metafile will make CRT's and plotters appear similar. Other standard graphics software mentioned are Core, and PLOT 10 IGL. A block diagram of a typical system usage is shown.