A gate array is an approach to the design and manufacture of
application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) using a prefabricated
chip with components that are later interconnected into logic devices
(e.g. NAND gates, flip-flops,etc.) according to a custom order by
adding metal interconnect layers in the factory.
Similar technologies have also been employed to design and manufacture
analog, analog-digital, and structured arrays, but, in general, these
are not called gate arrays.
Gate arrays have also been known as Uncommitted Logic Arrays (ULAs)
and semi-custom chips.
Design[edit]
A gate array is a prefabricated silicon chip with most transistors
having no predetermined function. These transistors can be connected
by metal layers to form standard NAND or NOR logic gates. These logic
gates can then be further interconnected into a complete circuit on
the same or later metal layers. Creation of a circuit with a specified
function is accomplished by adding these final layer or layers of
metal interconnects to the chips late in the manufacturing process,
allowing the function of the chip to be customized as desired. These
layers are analogous to the copper layer(s) of a printed circuit board
(PCB).
The earliest gate arrays comprised bipolar transistors, usually
configured as high performance TTL, ECL or CML logic configurations.
CMOS

CMOS gate arrays were developed later and came to dominate the
industry.
Gate array

Gate array master slices with unfinished chips arrayed across a wafer
are usually prefabricated and stockpiled in large quantities
regardless of customer orders. The design and fabrication according to
the individual customer specifications can be finished in a shorter
time than standard cell or full custom design. The gate array approach
reduces the non recurring engineering mask costs as fewer custom masks
need to be produced. In addition, manufacturing test tooling lead time
and costs are reduced - the same test fixtures can be used for all
gate array products manufactured on the same die size. Gate arrays
were the predecessor of the more complex structured ASIC; unlike gate
arrays, structured ASICs tend to include predefined or configurable
memories and/or analog blocks.
An application circuit must be built on a gate array that has enough
gates, wiring and I/O pins. Since requirements vary, gate arrays
usually come in families, with larger members having more of all
resources, but correspondingly more expensive. While the designer can
fairly easily count how many gates and I/Os pins are needed, the
amount of routing tracks needed may vary considerably even among
designs with the same amount of logic. (For example, a crossbar switch
requires much more routing than a systolic array with the same gate
count.) Since unused routing tracks increase the cost (and decrease
the performance) of the part without providing any benefit, gate array
manufacturers try to provide just enough tracks so that most designs
that will fit in terms of gates and I/O pins can be routed. This is
determined by estimates such as those derived from
Rent's rule or by
experiments with existing designs.
The main drawbacks of gate arrays are their somewhat lower density and
performance compared with other approaches to ASIC design. However
this style is often a viable approach for low production volumes.
History[edit]
Gate arrays had several concurrent development paths.
Ferranti

Ferranti in the
UK pioneered commercializing bipolar ULA technology, then later
abandoned this lead in semi-custom chips.IBM developed proprietary
bipolar master slices that it used in mainframe manufacturing in the
late 1970s and early 1980s, but never commercialized them externally.
Fairchild Semiconductor also flirted briefly in the late 60's's with
bipolar arrays DTL and TTL called Micromosaic and Polycell.[1]
CMOS

CMOS technology opened the door to broad commercialization of gate
arrays. The first
CMOS

CMOS gate arrays were developed by Robert Lipp[2][3]
in 1974 for International Microcircuits, Inc.,[1] (IMI) a Sunnyvale
photo-mask shop started by Frank Deverse, Jim Tuttle and Charlie
Allen, ex-IBM employees. This first product line employed 7.5 micron
single level metal
CMOS

CMOS technology and ranged from 50 to 400 gates.
CAD technology at the time was very rudimentary due to the low
processing power available, so the design of these first products was
only partially automated. This product pioneered several features that
went on to become standard on future designs. The most important were:
the strict organization of n and p-channel transistors in 2-3 row
pairs across the chip; and running all interconnect on grids rather
than minimum custom spacing, which had been the standard till
then.This later innovation paved the way to full automation when
coupled with the development of 2-layer
CMOS

CMOS arrays. Customizing these
first parts was somewhat tedious and error prone due to the lack of
good software tools.[1] IMI tapped into PC board development
techniques to minimize manual customization effort. Chips at the time
were designed by hand drawing all components and interconnect on
precision gridded Mylar sheets, using colored pencils to delineate
each processing layer. Rubylith sheets were then cut and peeled to
create a (typically) 200x to 400x scale representation of the process
layer. This was then photo-reduced to make a 1x mask. Digitization
rather than rubylith cutting was just coming in as the latest
technology, but initially it only removed the rubylith stage; drawings
were still manual and then "hand" digitized. PC boards meanwhile had
moved from custom rubylith to PC tape for interconnects. IMI created
to-scale photo-enlargements of the base layers. Using decals of logic
gate connections and PC tape to interconnect these gates, custom
circuits could be quickly laid out by hand for these relatively small
circuits, and photo-reduced using existing technologies.
After a falling out with IMI, Robert Lipp went on to start California
Devices, Inc. (CDI) in 1978 with two silent partners, Bernie Aronson
and Brian Tighe. CDI quickly developed a product line competitive to
IMI and shortly thereafter a 5 micron silicon gate single layer
product line with densities up to 1,200 gates. A couple of years later
CDI followed up with "channel-less" gate arrays that reduced the row
blockages caused by a more complex silicon underlayer that pre-wired
the individual transistor connections to locations needed for common
logic functions, simplifying the first level metal interconnect. This
increased chip densities 40%, significantly reducing manufacturing
costs.[2]
Early gate arrays were low performance and relatively large and
expensive compared to state-of-the-art n-MOS technology then being
used for custom chips.
CMOS

CMOS technology was being driven by very low
power applications such as watch chips and battery operated portable
instrumentation, not performance. They were also well under the
performance of the existing dominant logic technology, TTL logic
families. However, there were many niche applications where they were
invaluable, particularly in low power, size reduction, portable and
aerospace applications as well as time-to-market sensitive products.
Even these small arrays could replace a board full of TTL logic gates
if performance were not an issue. A common application was combining a
number of smaller circuits that were supporting a larger LSI circuit
on a board was affectionately known as "garbage collection". And the
low cost of development and custom tooling made the technology
available to the most modest budgets. Early gate arrays played a large
part in the CB craze in the 70's as well as a vehicle for the
introduction of other later mass-produced products such as modems and
cell phones.
By the early 80's gate arrays were starting to move out of their niche
applications to the general market. Several factors in technology and
markets were converging. Size and performance were increasing;
automation was maturing; technology became "hot" when in 1981 IBM
introduced its new flagship 3081 mainframe with CPU comprising gate
arrays,; they were used in a consumer product, the ZX81; and new
entrants to the market increased visibility and credibility.
In 1981, Wilfred Corrigan, Bill O'Meara Rob Walker and Mitchell "Mick"
Bohn founded LSI Logic.[4] Their initial intention was to
commercialize ECL gate arrays, but discovered the market was quickly
moving towards CMOS. Instead they licensed CDI's silicon gate CMOS
line as a second source. This product established them in the market
while they developed their own proprietary 5 micron 2-layer metal
line.This latter product line was the first commercial gate array
product amenable to full automation. LSI developed a suite of
proprietary development tools that allowed users to design their own
chip from their own facility by remote login to LSI Logic's system.
Sinclair Research

Sinclair Research ported an enhanced ZX80 design to a ULA chip for the
ZX81, and later used a ULA in the ZX Spectrum. A compatible chip was
made in Russia as T34VG1.[5]
Acorn Computers

Acorn Computers used several ULA chips in
the BBC Micro, and later a single ULA for the Acorn Electron. Many
other manufacturers from the time of the home computer boom period
used ULAs in their machines. The
IBM PC

IBM PC took over much of the personal
computer market, and the sales volumes made full-custom chips more
economical. Commodore's Amiga series used gate arrays for the Gary and
Gayle custom-chips, as their code-names may suggest.
While the market boomed, profits for the industry were lacking.
Semiconductors underwent a series of rolling recessions during the
80's that created a boom-bust cycle. The 1980 and 1981-1982 general
recessions were followed by high interest rates that curbed capital
spending. This reduction played havoc on the semiconductor business
that at the time was highly dependent on capital spending.
Manufacturers desperate to keep their fab plants full and afford
constant modernization in a fast moving industry became
hyper-competitive. The many new entrants to the market drove gate
array prices down to the marginal costs of the silicon manufacturers.
Fabless companies such as LSI Logic and CDI survived on selling design
services and computer time rather than on the production revenues.[2]
Indirect competition arose with the development of the
field-programmable gate array (FPGA).
Xilinx

Xilinx was founded in 1984 and
its first products were much like early gate arrays, slow and
expensive, fit only for some niche markets. However, Moore's Law
quickly made them a force and by the early 90's were seriously
disrupting the gate array market.
Designers still wished for a way to create their own complex chips
without the expense of full-custom design, and eventually this wish
was granted with the arrival of not only the FPGA, but complex
programmable logic device (CPLD), metal configurable standard cells
(MCSC), and structured ASICs. Whereas a gate array required a back end
semiconductor wafer foundry to deposit and etch the interconnections,
the FPGA and CPLD had user programmable interconnections. Today's
approach is to make the prototypes by FPGAs, as the risk is low and
the functionality can be verified quickly. For smaller devices,
production cost are sufficiently low. But for large FPGAs, production
is very expensive, power hungry, and in many cases do not reach the
required speed. To address these issues, several ASIC companies like
BaySand, Faraday, Gigoptics and others offer FPGA to ASIC conversion
services.
Today, the gate array market is only a remnant of its former self,
driven by the FPGA conversions done for cost or performance reasons.
IMI moved out of gate arrays into mixed signal circuits and was later
acquired by Cypress Semiconductor in 2001; CDI closed its doors in
1989; and LSI Logic abandoned the market in favor of standard products
and was eventually acquired by Broadcom.[6]
References[edit]
^ a b c "1967: Application Specific Integrated Circuits employ
Computer-Aided Design The Silicon Engine Computer History Museum".
www.computerhistory.org. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
^ a b c "Lipp, Bob oral history 102706880 Computer History
Museum". www.computerhistory.org. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
^ "People The Silicon Engine Computer History Museum".
www.computerhistory.org. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
^ "LSI Logic oral history panel 102746194 Computer History
Museum". www.computerhistory.org. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
^ Т34ВГ1 — article about the
ZX Spectrum

ZX Spectrum ULA compatible chip (in
Russian)
^ "Companies The Silicon Engine Computer History Museum".
www.computerhistory.org. Retrieved