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ASIC - Application-Specific Integrated Circuit

The cost of developing an ASIC has to be compared with the cost of using an existing part. The existing part may not perform the required function exactly, requiring either a design specification change, or some additional glue logic to adapt the part to the application.

More than one ASIC may be needed under any of the following conditions:

Factors to consider on a per chip basis:

H/W versus S/W Design Partition Principles

Many functions can be realised in software or hardware.

Decide what to do in hardware:

what to do on custom processors or with custom instructions/coprocessors on an extensible processor:

and what to do in S/W on standard cores:

Custom processor synthesis commercial offerings: See »Tensilica


25: (C) 2008-13, DJ Greaves, University of Cambridge, Computer Laboratory.