The Silicon ATM

One of the things that eSilicon does is handle all the backend operations for the designs that they do. eSilicon is a fabless ASIC company and so the most visible part of the business is the design (not to mention IP which is a critical input into design these days). But another key part is arranging with foundries like TSMC to get the wafers manufactured, then a test and packaging house which may be in another country, and finally delivering the designs to wherever they are going to be used.

eSilicon has an entire production management system to do this. It allows the customer to see what is going on, allows eSilicon employees to control it, and over a longer time horizon do things like yield analysis. But eSilicon wants to go further and make it so it is self-service. The ATM for silicon. No standing in line for a teller.

The first step started late last year was automatic quoting for MPW shuttles at TSMC, GF, UMC, SMIC and more foundries coming soon. I already wrote about this. There is an online form for doing your own quote and even an iPhone app. 150 different users have used the system to do over 400 quotes. I’m not sure if that excludes people like me playing with the system.

The breakdown is an interesting little bit of data in its own right. Half the quotes were either 40nm (110) or 28nm (105). The rest were more evenly spread in larger geometries all the way up to one quote at 500nm (or 0.5um as we used to call it way back when).

The next step, that is being introduced for DAC, is eSilicon’s IP MarketPlace. This allows users to search eSilicon’s IP library by foundry and technology, do what-if PPA analysis and download and configure it. There will be demos during DAC and the system will be rolled out later this year.

Next step will be full GDS-II quoting, not just for MPW runs. This will let you create a fully customizable GDS-II handoff quote online by technology, flavor, metallization, process options, package, test time, test platform, yields, production ramp, and more

• eSilicon stands behind the online quotation, which includes NRE and production unit pricing
• Customers benefit from a no-compromise experience
• High level of customization
• Instantly available, detailed and binding quotation
• Customers are able to conduct trade-off analysis and explore a number of options
• Not feasible without online technology

Again this will be demoed at DAC and released later in June (for TSMC).

So come by the eSilicon booth #512 and see these products being demoed. And if you time it right, you might get a free copy of Fabless, the must-have accessory this June.Plus we will be signing them at Tuesday night’s reception (and if you just happen to see us on the show floor).