English
Will analog foundry model work?
Danny Lam, EE Times
(11/03/2008 2:24 PM EST)
This commentary was contributed by Danny Lam, energy and semiconductor analyst at The Fairview Group Inc. (San Ramon, Calif.).
In theory, digital chips can be moved around from one manufacturing facility to another. For example, a chipset can be built at IBM, TSMC or even SMIC.
Because you can clone a ''mask set'' from the chip, the industry made that practice illegal via the Semiconductor Protection Act (SPA) in 1984. So, even though someone can steal your design and make it, selling it in any reasonable quantity on the open market is a dead end.
In the case of analog parts, the above considerations do not apply. Analog and mixed-signal parts are specific to individual production lines. Generally, they cannot be moved from one line to another without recalibrating the process from scratch.
(11/03/2008 2:24 PM EST)
This commentary was contributed by Danny Lam, energy and semiconductor analyst at The Fairview Group Inc. (San Ramon, Calif.).
In theory, digital chips can be moved around from one manufacturing facility to another. For example, a chipset can be built at IBM, TSMC or even SMIC.
Because you can clone a ''mask set'' from the chip, the industry made that practice illegal via the Semiconductor Protection Act (SPA) in 1984. So, even though someone can steal your design and make it, selling it in any reasonable quantity on the open market is a dead end.
In the case of analog parts, the above considerations do not apply. Analog and mixed-signal parts are specific to individual production lines. Generally, they cannot be moved from one line to another without recalibrating the process from scratch.
|
E-mail This Article | 
|
|
Printer-Friendly Page |
Related News
- Does the analog foundry model hold water?
- Blue Cheetah Tapes Out Its High-Performance Chiplet Interconnect IP on Samsung Foundry SF4X
- Siemens collaborates with GlobalFoundries to certify Analog FastSPICE for the foundry's high-performance processes
- Analog Bits to Join Intel Foundry Services Chip Design Ecosystem Expanding 3nm IP Offerings
- Cadence Digital and Custom/Analog Design Flows Certified for Samsung Foundry's SF2 and SF3 Process Technologies
Breaking News
- Siemens delivers certified and automated design flows for TSMC 3DFabric technologies
- AheadComputing Raises $21.5M Seed Round and Introduces Breakthrough Microprocessor Architecture Designed for Next Era of General-Purpose Computing
- ZeroPoint Technologies Unveils Groundbreaking Compression Solution to Increase Foundational Model Addressable Memory by 50%
- Breker RISC-V SystemVIP Deployed across 15 Commercial RISC-V Projects for Advanced Core and SoC Verification
- Veriest Solutions Strengthens North American Presence at DVCon US 2025
Most Popular
- Intel in advanced talks to sell Altera to Silverlake
- S2C Teams Up with Arm, Xylon, and ZC Technology to Drive Software-Defined Vehicle Evolution
- Siemens to accelerate customer time to market with advanced silicon IP through new Alphawave Semi partnership
- Breker RISC-V SystemVIP Deployed across 15 Commercial RISC-V Projects for Advanced Core and SoC Verification
- Arteris Revolutionizes Semiconductor Design with FlexGen - Smart Network-on-Chip IP Delivering Unprecedented Productivity Improvements and Quality of Results