4 ms·

The late 1980s (after the Mead&Conway revolution) seems like such a magical time for VLSI to me, as someone who wasn't around at that time. Does this spirit of

by twtw 8y ago

The late 1980s (after the Mead&Conway revolution) seems like such a magical time for VLSI to me, as someone who wasn't around at that time. Does this spirit of getting a few engineers together and taping out a chip in a few months still exist anywhere?

wmf 8y ago
Cryptocurrency? It sounds like son of HFT with fortunes being made and lost in months based on secret exotic hardware.
- Taniwha 8y ago
  That was a rather silly time, the number of people I turned down who wanted me to make a quick mining chip was a little ridiculous. Back to the parent question ... the main issue these days is the size of a team you need to make something serious - you essentially need a million dollars or two to pay for the people, the CAD tools, and the tape out costs ... that means it's pretty hard to just knock together something that's non-trivial
lnsru 8y ago
Why should it exist? You can choose any chip from 0.05$ Padauk microprocessor to $20k high end FPGA and everything in between off the shelf. Exception was bitcoin and litecoin mining ASICs couple years ago, but I am not following current status. Edit: typo
- leggomylibro 8y ago
  This is true right now, but isn't that largely because the cost of fabricating a VLSI design is astronomical, and the tools to debug any issues with a first run also cost an arm and a leg? If you could get parts made affordably and have some insight into their operation, then you might see more interest. Sort of like how affordable PCB fabrication services have led to a proliferation of customized circuit boards for all sorts of purposes, including spurious art like conference badges. I bet if it were affordable to get a working design with a bit of studying, you'd see a lot more special-purpose chips, especially in small 3-6 pin packages.
opencl 8y ago
Anything worth making into an ASIC these days is complicated enough that it is going to take way more than a few engineers and a few months. For 28nm you are paying the fab in the ballpark of a million dollars to tapeout a design.

by twtw 8y ago

wmf 8y ago

Cryptocurrency? It sounds like son of HFT with fortunes being made and lost in months based on secret exotic hardware.

Taniwha 8y ago
That was a rather silly time, the number of people I turned down who wanted me to make a quick mining chip was a little ridiculous. Back to the parent question ... the main issue these days is the size of a team you need to make something serious - you essentially need a million dollars or two to pay for the people, the CAD tools, and the tape out costs ... that means it's pretty hard to just knock together something that's non-trivial

lnsru 8y ago

Why should it exist? You can choose any chip from 0.05$ Padauk microprocessor to $20k high end FPGA and everything in between off the shelf. Exception was bitcoin and litecoin mining ASICs couple years ago, but I am not following current status. Edit: typo

leggomylibro 8y ago
This is true right now, but isn't that largely because the cost of fabricating a VLSI design is astronomical, and the tools to debug any issues with a first run also cost an arm and a leg? If you could get parts made affordably and have some insight into their operation, then you might see more interest. Sort of like how affordable PCB fabrication services have led to a proliferation of customized circuit boards for all sorts of purposes, including spurious art like conference badges. I bet if it were affordable to get a working design with a bit of studying, you'd see a lot more special-purpose chips, especially in small 3-6 pin packages.

opencl 8y ago

Anything worth making into an ASIC these days is complicated enough that it is going to take way more than a few engineers and a few months. For 28nm you are paying the fab in the ballpark of a million dollars to tapeout a design.