On Jun 25, 2004, at 10:33 PM, Charles Craft wrote:

> What's it take to set up a small chip foundry?

To make what?  And what do you consider part of the "foundry"?  I think
these days the raw wafers are made someplace different than where they
get turned into actual integrated circuits.

If you get to start-of-the-art ASICs or similar, you find that there
are only one or two foundries IN THE WORLD that can make them.  This
does nasty things to your leadtime; everyone else wants THEIR asics
made too.


> Aren't there universities where students make their own chips?

The VLSI chips are usually shipped out to a commercial fab.
I think there are universities doing experiments with odd materials,
odd topologies, and FAR from state-of-the-art geometries (things like
MEMS, biochip stuff, organic circuits; stuff thats so far beyond "art"
that it's still "science."

> Can you make chips in a few thousand square foot warehouse?
>
Chips that do what?  Compete with a P4?  No way.  Solar cells?
Probably.  60s (?) technology RTL logic just for grins?  Maybe.
Don't forget all the OSHA, zoning, insurance, and legal issues you'll
face since you'll have all that hazmat stuff on site...  ("few thousand
feet" is REALLY tiny for a "warehouse."  That's a "small" office
building, or part of one.  After all, a reasonable sized cubical is 100
sq feet or more...)

BillW

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