CHOOSING SYSTEM-ON-CHIP PROCESSES: A TOUGH DECISION

摘要

An unwritten assumption of the chip-design profession is that it is always best to use the newest available process: best for your resume, and best for the design. The most advanced process you can get will make the chip faster, lower power, and less expensive than that old "mature" process you used last year. Flaws in this reasoning have always existed, but the old rule is now breaking down on a grand scale. Far from assuming that they will use the latest and greatest, today's design teams find that process selection has in itself become an important early step in the design flow.