Get The Most From Your FoundrySponsored by: FUJITSU

The plethora of foundries and original device manufacturers (ODMs) providing foundry services and process options makes it tough to select the best process for chip design. Many companies now offer the technology of choice for high-performance and highly

Dave Bursky

Oct. 27, 2005

If your performance goals don't push the edge, look to a foundry. But if your circuit has tight timing demands, extremely high integration, or a low-leakage current requirement, an ODM that offers foundry services is going to be a better match. ODMs often can provide a performance edge because they create optimized cell libraries to get the most out of their processes when they design their own chips. As a result, they can offer those optimized libraries to customers demanding the best performance possible.

Click here to download the PDF version of this entire article.

About the Author

Dave Bursky

Technologist

Dave Bursky, the founder of New Ideas in Communications, a publication website featuring the blog column Chipnastics – the Art and Science of Chip Design. He is also president of PRN Engineering, a technical writing and market consulting company. Prior to these organizations, he spent about a dozen years as a contributing editor to Chip Design magazine. Concurrent with Chip Design, he was also the technical editorial manager at Maxim Integrated Products, and prior to Maxim, Dave spent over 35 years working as an engineer for the U.S. Army Electronics Command and an editor with Electronic Design Magazine.