ASIC

An application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) can be defined as an IC designed for a particular
application. ASICs stand in sharp contrast to standard IC products which are typically designed for use in
a wide range of applications. ASICs also define a design style or methodology. ASICs are usually designed
by the customer and not the semiconductor vendor personnel. This fact along with design objectives such
as performance, area and time to market, further differentiates ASICs from other types of IC designs.

ASIC contains a very large part of the electronics circuits significantly integrated on a single IC. So Large
No of components are found in one ASIC. It means that cost of ASICs Design is usually very high. Despite
the High cost, ASICs are cost effective for applications where volume of production is very high. Due to
improvement in Design Techniques, size of ASIC has increased from 5000 gates to over 100 million.

Classification of ASICs

The history of ASIC technology can be characterized by the evolution and proliferation of ASIC design
styles. ASICs can be grouped into four broad categories:

 Full-custom
 Semi-custom
 Field programmable logic devices
 Linear Arrays
Features of ASICs

 Low (NRE) cost

 Low power consumption
 Less complex (As only few layers to fabricate)
 High performance

ASIC Drawbacks

 Inflexible Design
 Deployed systems cannot be upgraded
 Mistakes in product development are costly
 Updates requires a redesign
 Complex and expensive development tool