Carver Mead proposed and promoted a new methodology to divide the increasingly complicated design process of very large-scale integration (VLSI) systems into logic, circuit, and layout designs, and to separate them from the manufacturing process. He also contributed greatly to the advancement of computer-aided design technology and paved the way to the electronic design automation of VLSIs that led to the immense development of VLSI-based electronics and industry.
Kyoto Prize award category: Advanced Technology (Electronics)