Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin

RMBS 88.13

+1.0%

Nov 21 9:30 AM EST

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

To: Dave B who wrote (19082)	4/22/1999 6:42:00 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (2) of 93625

Hi Dave B; Your friend is correct, as far as I know, regarding Rambus ASIC cells. FPGAs are different from ASICs. I should have explained: An FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) is a chip that can be configured to contain an incredible variety of logic functions. Xilinx (XLNX) and Altera (ALTR) are the market leaders. People use them for small electronics projects that cannot afford the NRE (Non Recoverable Engineering) costs of building an ASIC. Such a project might only involve production of a few hundred units. FPGAs are currently available that contain up to a million gates, and can be clocked around 150MHz or so. You can get up to 230 billion 16-bit adds per second out of the latest Xilinx product, so these are very powerful devices. The chips cost a thousand dollars or so, but this is a lot cheaper than the costs associated with fabricating a chip. In addition, the chips can be reprogrammed quickly and easily if changes are required. ASICs might take months to alter, and only at very high cost. -- Carl

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next