Today's multimillion gate deep sub-micron SoC designs contain functionality that was only seen in entire systems just a few years ago. With the increase of functionality, the probability of functional changes increases too. In parallel, mask production cost have exploded, making functional changes extremely expensive. The Artisan ECO kits containing metal programmable standard cells and logic functions reduces design cost while enabling functional changes. By using ECO cells in place of filler cells, designers can add this option with no additional speed or area penalty.
Features include:
Reduced mask cost through the reuse of a large number of existing masks
Fast and cost effective turn around time for design re-spins with functional changes through the ability to use pre-fabricated wafers held prior to metalization
