THE MAGAZINE FOR COMPUTER APPLICATIONS
Circuit Cellar Online offers articles illustrating creative solutions
and unique applications through complete projects, practical
tutorials, and useful design techniques.

THE RETREAT OF SILICON?

by Tom Cantrell

Start ı One Gate Too Far ı Layout Lament ı Sources and PDF

The march of silicon is a wonderful thing that has bred applications faster than a bunch of bunnies that overdosed on Viagra. Itıs no surprise to find silicon permeating our lives. Itıs simple Econ 101. How rare is it to encounter more-for-less situations or a free lunch? Market signals, indeed, a giant flashing neon design-me-in sign.

After all, more-for-less pretty much sums up Mooreıs Law. Is there an end in sightıa silicon "wall," if you will? Is there a "turn out the lights, the partyıs over"? Itıs not hard to imagine some little roadblock (for example, the laws of physics) putting a damper on things. I share the feeling of Gordon Moore, who I once heard speak on the subject of a "wall." He said he quit predicting it, because he was wrong so many times. Yes, there is a wall, but we arenıt hitting it tomorrow.

In the meantime, letıs party-on to the tune of Gelbachıs Law. Named after early Intel sales manager Ed Gelbach, his lesser-known, circa-70ıs corollary of Mooreıs Law asserted that "every chip will be $5 or less." You can dicker about whether $5 is the right price these days and point to exceptions (such as certain well-known CPU chip prices), but otherwise, Gordon and Ed are still the law of the Valley.

DIS-INTEGRATION

Naturally, all these laws pose challenges for law-abiding designers. Of course, most of the attention is focused on the leading-edge stuff. How do you design a chip with a zillion gates, much less test it or get any reassurance that it will do what you think itıs supposed to do? For chip designers, the challenge becomes less of "how do I fit it all in?" and more of "how do I fill it all up?"

Less noticeable is the interesting phenomenon of chips falling off the trailing edge of Mooreıs and Gelbachıs laws. Have you tried to buy a 16-MB DRAM lately? Whatıs the price compared to a 64-MB DRAM? System designers must become economically aware, with enough merchant market savvy to design parts at (not above) the knee of the bang-per-buck curve.

Thus, with the more-for-less mentality firmly entrenched, you wouldnıt expect to see an IC company tooting its horn over a less-is-more solution. But, thatıs exactly what ON Semiconductor is doing.

For those of you who donıt keep up with business machinations, ON is a recent spinoff of Motorolaıs analog and discrete logic group. With global sales topping nearly $2 billion, 8.7% market share, and 14,000 employees, itıs a significant player. The chairman of the board is none other than Curtis Crawford, top gun at Zilog. Itıs more than just a coincidence, both ON and Zilog (and recently, Segate) are taken-private companies funded by an outfit known as the Texas Pacific Group.

Circuit Cellar provides up-to-date information for engineers. Visit www.circuitcellar.com for more information and additional articles.
For subscription information, call (860) 875-2199, subscribe@circuitcellar.com or subscribe online. ıCircuit Cellar, the Magazine for Computer Applications. Posted with permission.