22 Jun
2014
22 Jun
'14
9:32 a.m.
In article <9667D20E-E642-488E-92AD-363F2E3BE9AA at comcast.net>,
Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> writes:
In the late 1980s, the Western Research Lab did some
very interesting CAD
work in a project to build a single chip processor (MIPS-like, or
Alpha-like?) in ECL technology. That was unheard of -- no one was doing
VLSI ECL. They developed their own tools that made this possible,
including being able to define a design in a process-independent fashion so
that they could switch from one fab to another -- changing layout constraint
rules -- easily. In the end, I don't think the chip was built, but it
produced some interesting offshoots such as early designs for heat sinks
and chip test fixtures that would work with chips running at well over 100
watts.
A bunch of DEC technical reports were added to bitsavers. I think I
remember seeing this project mentioned in some of the titles:
<http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/tech_reports/>
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