Mannerisms

The ASIC industry is a disgraceful business which, if measured by the standards applied to other industries, deserves to have been killed off long ago.

A new breed of specialised ASIC companies has levelled up the design playing field, so that small companies can compete on equal terms with large companies, according to Wally Rhines, CEO of Mentor Graphics.

ASIC development is a simple business with an 88 per cent likelihood of delivering the chip on time, and a 94 per cent chance of getting it right first time.

What constitutes being brave at the semiconductor conference? Predicting the return of bubble memory? Projecting that FRAM will become the main memory device? Or predicting that direct write e-beam will bring about a resurgence in ASIC?

How do you overcome the rising costs of ASIC? Add programmability, says John Daane, CEO of programmable logic pioneer Altera.