All About ASICs - EEs Talk Tech #10

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Daniel Bogdanoff and Mike Hoffman sit down with ASIC planner and chip sage Mike Beyers to learn a little more about the integrated circuit environment.

Inspired by the blog post "Creating an ASIC - Our Quest to Make the Best Cheap Oscilloscope" https://community.keysight.com/community/keysight-blogs/oscilloscopes/blog/2017/05/15/creating-an-asic-our-quest-to-make-the-best-cheap-oscilloscope

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This episode: https://EEsTalkTech.com/all-about-ASICs

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Discussion Agenda

We’re a real podcast now! 0:00

What is an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) and why do we use them? 1:09

ASIC architecture 2:46 The main spec is “effective gate length” - the smallest thing you can find on a chip - like the gate of a CMOS transistor We also care about how many transistors you can fit in a square mm Metal layers for interconnects are also more important and can cause the mask sets to be more expensive Do we care more about footprint or depth? 4:10

Will Moore’s Law hit a dead end? 4:29 What about three dimensions? 5:37 Is Moore’s Law just a marketing number? 5:51

Does technology ever slow down? 6:29

Power is the biggest limiter 6:58 Google data centers next to hydroelectric dams 7:34 Battery power 7:43 Power drives cost 7:53

How does the power problem affect ASICs? 8:25 There are power integrity and thermal management concerns Dedicated routes on an ASIC vs switching on an FPGA 8:14

Who uses ASICs? 10:14 IOT technology ASICs on your bike 11:16 SRAM wireless electronic bike shifters 11:57 Is bike hacking a real thing?

What to consider when investing in an ASIC 13:23 What’s the next best alternative? With an ASIC, you can often drive cost down, increase performance and increase reliability 14:11 Is there a return on investment? 14:24

What happens when Moore’s Law hits a dead end with transistors? 14:46 Could we replace electrical with optical? 15:30 Are there other fundamental devices out there? 16:20 The theoretical fourth device, the memristor 17:00

Will analog design ever die? 17:28

Non-binary logic 18:23

Building ASICs 18:50 In-house vs external fabs Writing the code in Verilog or VHDL vs high ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGKY29t-uQs