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I think the primary focus / value here would be if they can somehow dramatically reduce the cost of making masks and IC's. Lets say these researchers make the a
by xt00 8y ago
I think the primary focus / value here would be if they can somehow dramatically reduce the cost of making masks and IC's. Lets say these researchers make the actual process of converting C code to silicon super easy, then you go to make the chip and they are like, "cool, the mask / fab cost is like 500k USD for samples" -- then basically the exact same people who currently make chips will keep making chips. What would be awesome would be if DARPA funded somebody converting an old 90nm fab into a low cost foundry that was basically fully automated and subsidized it to allow people to make a chip design for $1000 USD, then you would have a flood of people just being like, "well, its $1000 bucks, why the hell not try to make this chip even if its wrong.." most businesses would happily roll the dice on stuff for that kind of price, and some individuals would as well.
- namibj 8y agoUh, for 90nm you should be in the 4-digit range for a hand full of prototypes.
- xt00 8y agoOh yea I was totally exaggerating since obviously the prices vary tremendously upon the what you are trying to do. I’ve previously worked for a semiconductor company, so there is sort of a “you can pay as much as you want” option always avail if you want a super awesome mixed signal chip. For the general public, do you have a particular place you are aware of that you would pay the 4 digits for the mask plus few prototypes? I was not aware that there was even simple chips you could get in that range.. I mean 4 digits implies what like say 5k... so that’s pretty low cost.... really?
- namibj 8y agoThere is one, from the european network to made to provide semiconductor prototyping for universities. [0] [0]: http://www.europractice-ic.com/ http://www.europractice-ic.com/
- kragen 8y agoBoth CMP and MOSIS have a number of options that come in under US$10k for a handful of prototypes. Large process nodes, so they won't be competitive for digital stuff, but for analog or mostly analog mixed-signal, they might actually be able to beat anything you can buy off the shelf. Haven't tried it yet myself, though.
- voxadam 8y agoYou can get an automated quote from the MOSIS link below: https://www.mosis.com/db/pubf/cact?page_type=standard_quote https://www.mosis.com/db/pubf/cact?page_type=standard_quote