ASIC family massively expands high-end capabilities

The G11 CMOS ASIC family is a cell-based family that increases density
2.5 times, speed 30%, and cuts power up to 75% compared to the company's
currently leading G-10 offering. In the largest chip the process allows,
8 million bits of SRAM take up half the die, as do 12 million bits of three-transistor
DRAM. The die could hold over 8 million gates of random logic. Typical
designs have from 100,000 to 3.5 million used gates.

Although LSI Logic has large libraries of available cells, it is the
prospect of chips like this that drives efforts such as the Virtual Socket
Interface Alliance (see page 22), of which the company is a member. Within
the company's offering, two cell libraries can be mixed on the same chip.

One library is optimized for low power and small area, and operates
at 1.8 V. The other is optimized for speed, and requires 2.5 V.

Key to the density of the G11 chips is the metallization. From three
to six layers are used. The top two, used for power, ground, clocks, and
long signal paths, have a 1.6-µm pitch. The lowest layer has a 0.8-µm
pitch, with tungsten vias. Layers 2 to 4 are 0.85 µm. Drawn transistor
features are 0.25 µm.

A five-layer implementation of LSI Logic's G-11 ASIC process
shows metal 1, metal 2, and metal 3 as fine-pitched signal layers,
and metal 4 and metal 5 as double thick and wide power, ground,
and clock-distribution layers.

I/O options include USB cells, as well as GTL/NTL/HSTL/SSTL, PECL,
impedance-controlled LVTTL, and LVDS to 1.2 GHz. Mixed-signal libraries include
converters, data transport, and signal-processing capabilities.

Packaging options range from low-cost PQFPs up to flip-chip BGAs, used
when space and pin count require it. Flip-chip CBGA is currently qualified
with pin counts up to 1,089. FC-EBGA pushes the lead count to 1,300, and
will be qualified later this year.

Costs are largely dependent on licensing of the Coreware modules used
in a design. G-11 is sampling now and will be in production this fall.
The family is expected to command a premium price over G-10 for about two
years. For more information from LSI Logic, call Dept. CPNR14 at 800-574-4286,
or visit http://www.lsilogic.com.