des. This gives a clue as to the tremendous pace with which tech- nology evolves. With the latest Intel Pentium 4 containing over 100 million transistors 1.1 STRUCTURED ANALYSIS, A KEY TO SUCCESSFUL DESIGN Figure 1.1: Evolution of transistor sizes and number of transistors per die for the Intel processor [source: Intel]. and with the first 1 billion transistor processor expected by 2007, integrating complex functionalities on a single die is becoming reality. Packing more transistors onto a single chip has resulted into a dramatic cost reduction. Fig. 1.2 shows that the average transistor cost drops exponentially with time. This price evolution drives a huge number of commercial applications, making them affordable for mass markets. These applications have pervaded almost all aspects of our daily lives: computers are used to run complex administrations; electronic control systems are omnipresent, from chemical plants to automobiles; electronic signal processing has made global communication a reality. As a consequence of these successes and of many years of high-paced growth, the electronics industry has become a highly competitive business. There are a lot of com- panies that want market share. Often, the first company to offer a particular product at a reasonable price acquires a substantial share in overall sales. A short time-to-market is therefore of vital importance in being successful. The electronics industry is a business where complex systems need to be developed in a minimum of time. 1.1.2 Analog design: A potential bottleneck In order to cope with the requirements of a demanding market, systems are made highly programmable. This is accomplished using field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), micro-processors and reconfigurable logic. Introducing software components on chip 1.1.3 Structured analog design Figure 1.2: Evolution of the cost of a single transistor [source: Intel]. allows us to make last-minute changes, promotes reuse and provides a lot of flexibility in system debugging. This trend is suppor