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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: username who wrote (33276)	2/4/1998 1:44:00 PM
From: Dee Jay	Respond to of 61433

"ASIC design is faster than designing a chip from scratch, and design changes can be made more easily." This is where hot, fast-moving companies get their headstarts and why Bay bought Rapid City Comm last June (gigE switch technology based on ASICs) and why MRV Comm gets out of the gate ahead of others. Dee Jay

To: username who wrote (33276)	2/4/1998 2:04:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 61433

ASIC design is faster than designing a chip from scratch, and design changes can be made more easily Actually as designs change they can be reflected in new PLDs, and FPGAs very quickly. Some PLDs are EEPROM based and therefore can be reused and reprogrammed to reflect design changes. MOst FPGAs are reprogrammable too. For a quick time to market CSCO, ASND and others use FPGA extensively. They also use ASIC for high density designs and med to high volume products because ASICs require a NRE (non-recurring Engr charge up front from fab vendors); hence, ASICs cost more for low volume product. Of course, if high circuit density and PCB board space is the overiding factor, then ASIC is the only choice. BTW, XLNX FPGAs are being used alomost exclusively at CSCO, ASND uses XLNX, ALTR, and others. This is meant as a tip. But you need to do more thorough research. I wish I had money to put in XLNX and ALTR when they were low in Dec. The big 5 NW also use PMCS, LEVL, .. ATM chip set. Sorry for the distraction. I could go on for days talking about FPGA, ASIC, PLD.