8 Oct
1998
8 Oct
'98
4:47 a.m.
The key is the limits of IC gate density of the
moment. Now we can have
lterally millions so complexity is very high. Back when (1970-71) teh
semi houses were hitting the ceiling at about 1000 gates/2500 raw devices
to a chunk of silicon. So splitting a function across two chips was not
unresonable idea. It's was a reflection of *manufacturability*.
This is still very true. The fastest processors out today are multi-chip
ones.
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net