Re: what is ASIC

From: Gerrit Heitsch <*gerrit_at_laosinh.s.bawue.de*> Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2016 14:11:35 +0200 Message-ID: <18dbe71f-6151-18c4-fe36-03970f65b930@laosinh.s.bawue.de> · gerrit_at_laosinh.s.bawue.de

On 07/29/2016 02:02 PM, Segher Boessenkool wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 29, 2016 at 01:48:45PM +0200, silverdr@wfmh.org.pl wrote:
>>> Yeah, having their own fab was a huge business advantage for Commodore back then!
>>
>> How did f.e. Atari build their POKEYs and Co. then?
>
> Without that advantage.  Having their own fab reduced turn-around time
> for test runs and makes those cheaper as well, so that you can have more
> test chips.  It is not impossible to do things without your own fab, it
> just is more costly (more manpower needed, longer development cycles).

 From what I remember, they even made partial chips of VIC so they could 
test the different parts without having to create the full chip. This 
way they could get at signals you usually can't get to. At least not 
without a miscroscope and a VERY fine probe.

I read somewhere that turnaround time was less than a week for MOS in 
this regard.

  Gerrit

       Message was sent through the cbm-hackers mailing list