Am 12.06.2010 11:04, schrieb Orchid XP v8:

> Yeah, I'd heard about that. I guess if space is tight you need to put
> everything into a single ASIC. But otherwise, I'm not sure what the
> advantage is to integrating (say) an MPEG1 decoder into your chip is
> verses just mounting two chips on the board. Any cost saving in having
> to only mount one chip is surely dwarfed by the vast cost of making an
> ASIC.

Depends on the numbers we're taling about. At some volume, the one-time 
cost of designing an ASIC is dwarfed by the per-device cost savings for 
ICs (reducing total wafer surface by eliminating unnecessary bonding 
pads, logic gates, and space lost due to cutting; reducing the number of 
required bonding wires; reducing the number of IC packages), PCBs (again 
reducing total PCB surface & drill holes - maybe even reducing the 
number of layers - and simplifying testing, by eliminating unnecessary 
IC-to-IC interconnections and solder pads; reducing the shipping costs 
for the PCBs) and soldering (reducing the amount of solder needed; 
reducing the number of potential points of failure; etc.)

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