MICROELECTRONIC SYSTEMS NEWS

FILENUMBER: 1176 BEGIN_KEYWORDS Structured ASIC Platforms END_KEYWORDS DATE: July 2004 TITLE: Structured ASIC Platforms
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TITLE: Structured ASIC Platforms

Structured ASIC platforms are pre-fabricated ICs except for a few
customizable layers.   

The official definition according to the Structured ASIC Association is:

"An integrated circuit architecture and methodology that delivers
reduced entry cost and faster time to silicon using a  predefined
arrangement   of  late-stage  mask-customizable  logic  and  pre-
diffused macros and IP."

The rapidly increasing costs for masks and the challenges of very
deep  submicron manufacturing make the initial venture into cell-
based  ASICs  more  expensive  and  riskier  than  in  the  past.
Whenever   performance   higher  than  that  provided  by  field-
programmable products is needed,  structured  ASICs  may  be  the
solution  of  choice.  This middle ground, that used to served by
gate arrays, is now re-emerging as  platforms  with  lower  cost,
shorter    turnaround    times,   and   design   flexibility   or
programmability.

The design flow begins with the designer  using  logic  synthesis
and  simulation  to  produce  a  register transfer level net-list
based on the available blocks in  a  pre-defined  platform.   The
platform  vendor  then  performs the physical placement (actually
assignment) and routing tasks, pulls pre-fabricated  wafers  from
inventory  and  customizes  the upper metal layers using masks or
ebeam patterning.  This approach isolates designers from many  of
the  physical  design  issues  such  as  3D parasitic extraction,
signal integrity, crosstalk, antenna rules, electro-migration and
IR drops.

Vendors offering a variety of these platforms include:

Altera

AMI Semiconductor

ChipX

eASIC

Faraday Technology

Fujitsu Microelectronics America

Leopard Logic

Lightspeed

LSI Logic [phasing out as of March 2006]

NEC Electronics America

ViASIC

Tool vendors supporting this flow include:

AccelChip

Magma

Synopsys

Synplicity

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