4 ms·
PragmatIC Semiconductor designed and manufactured a flexible 6502 in two weeks
- fxtentacle 5y agoIt's a pity that they don't mention a price for their fab / foundry offerings anywhere.
- Animats 5y agoThat's a problem. Their basic claim is that they have, running, a fab for 28nm to 65nm flexible ICs capable of making a billion units a year. They claim 1-day turnaround. They claim to have a 6502 and one of the smaller ARM CPUs working. What they seem to actually make is RFID tags, which are low-end flexible electronic devices. They promote RFID hard. ("Is RFID the solution to protect and promote wine?") The actual product they sell is described here.[1] "At the core of these new cost-effective smart solutions are Avery Dennison’s NFC inlays, which include NFC ICs from the ConnectIC® range of products manufactured by PragmatIC, a UK-based world leader in ultra-low-cost electronics. As these flexible ICs (“FlexICs”) are thinner than a human hair and robust, they are suitable for small diameter objects and provide the ideal solution for adding a unique identity to cost-sensitive products, for example small syringes, or vials." So what they seem to be trying to do is take a technology useful for RFID tags and use it for more complex devices. As a demo, they've made some CPUs. [1] https://rfid.averydennison.com/en/home/news-insights/press-releases/avery-dennison-partnered-with-schreiner-mediPharm-and-pragmatic-semiconductor-to-leverage-nfc-technology.html https://rfid.averydennison.com/en/home/news-insights/press-r...
- pjc50 5y agoFabs rarely do. You're deep into "call for pricing" land.
- gbraad 5y agoA press statement without images? Checks again... Right?
- fao_ 5y ago> High resolution images are available in our Press Kit at https://www.pragmaticsemi.com/presskit https://www.pragmaticsemi.com/presskit edit: reading through the press release, I'm not actually sure how much of this is even true.
- userbinator 5y agoI'm not sure how much they designed, given that the existing mask sets for the 6502 were prominently reverse-engineered a few years (actually more like a decade now) ago. http://visual6502.org http://visual6502.org
- pjc50 5y agoYou can't necessarily use a mask set designed for one process with another very different one. But they probably did start from the existing netlist.
- StringyBob 5y agoIn conjunction with Arm they previously built a cortex M0 based microcontroller (link to Nature paper in this article): https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/23/22590001/arm-plasticarm-cheap-flexible-plastic-microchip-internet-of-everything https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/23/22590001/arm-plasticarm-c...
- christkv 5y agoWhat’s the node density for this tech?
- StringyBob 5y agoNot quite trying to match TSMCs leading edge - as a back of the envelope calculation based on dimensions given in nature paper, a GTX 3080 in this node would be getting on for the size of a billboard!