VLSI has become a glamorous buzz-word, and much talk has centered on evolutionary and revolutionary solutions to the Computer Aided Design of VLSI circuits. Not being altogether cynical, one may venture to say that CAD for LSI enjoyed a priviledged position in the last decade, and perhaps still does. While CAD for LSI was still being discussed and written about, and while CAD experts attempted to solve the much talked about layout problem by offering, to an interconnect-capacitance limited technology, solutions such as standard cells and automated routing, the industry went ahead and solved the same problem by giving computer aids to manual layout techniques, through the introduction of turnkey graphic systems. In proposing new solutions, it is important to understand the role played by turnkey graphics in LSI production.