- 2070 Magh · 3 marks
Three major IC technologies
Short answer
Full-custom: every transistor and interconnect designed custom for best performance/area, high NRE cost. Semi-custom: uses standard cells or gate arrays, balancing cost and time. Programmable logic (PLD/FPGA): pre-fabricated, user-programmed, no custom masks.
List the three major IC technologies with brief definitions.
- Full-custom (VLSI) IC technology: every transistor and wire of the chip is designed and laid out specially, and all masks are custom. It gives the best performance, power and area, but is expensive and slow to design; used for high-volume chips like processors.
- Semi-custom (ASIC) IC technology: the chip uses pre-designed cells or pre-fabricated transistor arrays (standard cell, gate array); only part of the layout (placement and routing, some masks) is customised. It is a compromise between cost, time and performance.
- Programmable logic device (PLD) technology: a standard, pre-fabricated chip (PAL, CPLD, FPGA) whose logic and connections are programmed by the user after manufacture, with no custom masks. It has the lowest design cost and time and can be reprogrammed.
✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)
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