johnh@babel.SanDiego.NCR.COM (John Holmes) (03/18/89)
Thanks in advance to all who respond to the following questions: What companies offer cheap prototype chips? Are there alternatives to multi-project chips? Do any foundries offer multi-project chips directly? Any experiences particularly positive or negative with specific outfits? Are the chips offered as gate arrays, std. cell or custom (or "yes")? What are typical costs involved in real work? Does anyone do this with ECL, or just CMOS? What questions did I miss? Thanks again to all who respond, John Holmes
wetter@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Pierce T. Wetter) (03/22/89)
> What companies offer cheap prototype chips? > Are there alternatives to multi-project chips? > Do any foundries offer multi-project chips directly? Vitesse Semiconductor in Camarillo, CA offers them in GaAs. They also have/are their own foundry. > Are the chips offered as gate arrays, std. cell or custom (or "yes")? Yes. > What are typical costs involved in real work? $50k/#of other people in the run. Some subsidies available. > Does anyone do this with ECL, or just CMOS? Vitesse has an NMOS process, with some very important modifications for GaAs. Pierce -- wetter@tybalt.caltech.edu or wetter@csvax.caltech.edu or pwetter@caltech.bitnet Rule to live by #32796: Act consistently in one persona until people have characterized your reactions, then change personas.
markley@celece.ucsd.edu (Mike Markley) (03/23/89)
In article <10110@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> wetter@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Pierce T. Wetter) writes: >> What companies offer cheap prototype chips? >> Are there alternatives to multi-project chips? >> Do any foundries offer multi-project chips directly? MOSIS provides a foundry service for a reasonable fee. We have used them for class projects. I don't know how much they would charge if you took yp a whole wafer lot. >> Are the chips offered as gate arrays, std. cell or custom (or "yes")? You can use standard cell or go full custom. The choice is yours. >> What are typical costs involved in real work? I don't know what the cost is for commercial customers. >> Does anyone do this with ECL, or just CMOS? I believe that they only do CMOS processes. They can be contacted via the net at MOSIS@MOSIS.EDU Use the following format for your first mailing: REQUEST:INFO TOPIC:TOPICS REQUEST:END This will get you a list of topics that you can request. The mail is processed by a program so you need to conform exactly to the above format. MOSIS is run by the Information Science Institute of USC. They are located in Marina Del Rey California.