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Possible Duplicate:
How much does it cost to have a custom ASIC made?

I'm wondering, just out of curiosity, what it might cost for somebody to have their own integrated circuit design fabricated. I know next to nothing about any of this, so a good breakdown of ballpark figures for different technologies would be nice.

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Void Star
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  • What kind of circuit? Analog, digital? How many transistors? Speed? – stevenvh Sep 03 '12 at 06:19
  • Well, I was hoping for a few different figures, some for analog, some for digital, given with respect to the complexity of the circuit (components, gates, size, etc.) – Void Star Sep 03 '12 at 06:22
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    FPGA and PSOC go a long way towards giving you functional equivalence "in the privacy of your own home". – Russell McMahon Sep 03 '12 at 06:38
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    [PSOC Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSoC), [PSOC developer](http://www.psocdeveloper.com/forums/), [PSOC with humor](http://www.engineeringtv.com/video/Cypress-Semiconductor-PSoC-T-40), [Cypress PSOC](http://www.cypress.com/?id=1353) – Russell McMahon Sep 03 '12 at 06:41
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    [SOC & FPGA](http://www.actel.com/), [FPGA Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-programmable_gate_array), [FPGA Altera](http://www.altera.com/products/fpga.html), [FPGA 4 fun](http://www.fpga4fun.com/), [FPGA National Instruments](http://www.ni.com/fpga/), [FPGA Xilinx](http://www.xilinx.com/products/silicon-devices/fpga/index.htm), [FPGA Lattice](http://www.latticesemi.com/products/fpga/index.cfm), [Papillo - FPGA - DIY ITPOYOH](http://papilio.cc/) – Russell McMahon Sep 03 '12 at 07:16
  • Is @RussellMcMahon a possible PSoC Convert? – Rocketmagnet Sep 03 '12 at 13:03
  • @Rocketmagnet - Only in principle. Never used one yet. May well not manage to do so in this lifetime. – Russell McMahon Sep 03 '12 at 17:11

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The two organization for short run prototyping IC service I know of are:

www.mosis.com -> US one
www.europractice-ic.com -> EU one

My impression is that both services are directed toward academia but accepts commercial/independent projects too (I know that people at my Alma mater used both services with success).

For basic info about prices check out the link: http://www.europractice-ic.com/docs/MPW2012-general-v6.pdf

Both provide wide range of technologies - from quite old ones to quite new ones. I am leaving the work on learning for what can be done at what technology for you. However basic info is that in .18u tech one can pack about 100k gates per sq mm. Going up or down with technology node will roughly double or half of the gates per sq mm. So at .13u you will pack 200k and at .25u you will pack about 50k gates per sq mm.

This is for prototyping (that is you will get ~40 dies for each run), for production you will need to talk with foundry or specialized provider directly. Expect all hurdles attached with dealing with big business (NDAs, lawyers, will talk with you only if you want to spend big $ with them etc.)

mazurnification
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  • Is there a free/Free software suite that covers everything you need to go from zero to ASIC, or do you need to budget in big $$$ to buy expensive software? Let's assume time is free (hobby project) – drxzcl Sep 03 '12 at 12:28
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    @drxzcl: Yes, many people have used the [Magic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_(software)) layout tool and sent its output files to Mosis, getting a physical chip back. – davidcary Sep 03 '12 at 13:38
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    @drxzcl: Yes, I hear that many people use the ["Wol"](http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~lazzaro/chipmunk/describe/wol.html) IC layout tool -- part of the [Chipmunk system](http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~lazzaro/chipmunk/) -- and sent its output files to Mosis, getting a physical chip back. – davidcary Sep 03 '12 at 15:18
  • Updated link: http://www.europractice-ic.com/docs/MPW2014-general-v8.pdf I would edit the post, but SE complained to me about some 6 character minimum edit and I don't feel like fighting it right now. Plus, posting this as a comment lets other people see the naming pattern, which will be beneficial the next time it changes. – Ponkadoodle Jul 10 '14 at 07:03