4 ms·
Last time I looked at ASIC design a few years ago, that might get you a couple of prototypes and not much else. The software, staff and fabs cost a crap load of
by csmuk 13y ago
Last time I looked at ASIC design a few years ago, that might get you a couple of prototypes and not much else. The software, staff and fabs cost a crap load of cash.
- mrb 13y ago"A few years ago" is a long time ago. Thanks to Moore's law, designing an ASIC, getting a full mask set made, and the first few wafers etched only costs $500k at 65nm: http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=73 http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=73 Other Bitcoin companies (KnCMiner, etc) have apparently done 28nm with merely $1-3 million.
- ChuckMcM 13y agoThat matched my experience as well in trying to price out my frame buffer design.
- ChuckMcM 13y agoOf course they aren't buying the 'fabs and staff' just a chip designer with a decent design suite that has the geometries and processes for their chosen fab partner pre-loaded (probably TSMC or Global Foundaries). Get the design done for 250-300K (what is the annual salary for a chip designer these days ? $150K? $200K?) and then its pretty much point and shoot at the fab. Hand over the files, run the layout, build an alpha mask set, do a couple of wafers with it, tweak to the pre-production masks, so an A0 run, fix what is left and build an A1 "production" part. Given modern simulators you can simulate the chip pretty completely, synplicity can do the physics simulation of the process to verify geometry I believe. I have been looking at what it would take to 'mass produce' a simple ARM frame buffer design. There is quite a bit of support out there for "free" (its really back end loaded into the process costs since once you qualify on TSMC it is harder to move to GF and vice versa)