19 Jun
2004
19 Jun
'04
12:55 p.m.
Chips are designed by a group of people these days,
not by one individual.
If it is a real chip design, and not just a big PLD.
These groups are split up for other projects when the
first one is over ,
quit and find new jobs, or just get laid off and scatter to the wind. They
leave behind the blueprints needed to manufacture the part, operating
parameters, bug notes, etc so the knowledge of what the part does is still
with the company and is transferred if the company is sold or goes chapter
11. The problems come when the chip is no longer commercially sold or
supported, things tend to get lost.
I don't think the IP is reliably transferred once the team is disbanded, let
alone through a chapter 11. Often only the legal "rights" persist in a
useable form.
Manufacturing data may not include enough data to reconstruct "how it
works".
The lifetimes of new designs (say, for a piece of consumer electronics), are
generally quite short.
Vince