IBM boosts merchant ASIC effort

Electronic News, Oct 4, 1993 by Jim DeTar

SOMERS, N.Y.--IBM Microelectronics last week unveiled another piece of its merchant market product roadmap by offering analog and mixed-signal ASICs externally, primarily targeting the growing radio frequency (RF) products arena.

IBM Micro is marketing its suite of analog and mixed-signal ASICs, led by its BiCMOS 4S technology, a mixed-signal offering that features 12GHz NPN transistor performance and high-speed 0.45-micron logic. Other analog and mixed-signal technologies include CBiCMOS 2, a 1.0 micron process that offers 6.5GHz NPN performance and BIPOLAR 4S, a 0.8 micron technology that has a 15GHz digital NPN transistor.

Among the target markets are RF, telecom and datacom. Spurred by markets for portable computing devices incorporating RF technology, IBM Micro will focus on that area heavily.

"The fundamental reason we decided to move our analog and mixed-signal products into the merchant market is that we need to be dealing with the outside world to stay competitive," said Terry Brabazon, manager of analog and mixed-signal technology solutions. "It's a part of the big picture. We've been supplying mixed-signal products to internals for 20 years. We dominate the LAN business that goes to our networking systems.

"We haven't done mixed-signal foundry work previously," Mr. Brabazon said. "We have had requests for mixed-signal foundry work, however, and we have two very large contracts in progress. The foundry work would be done mostly out of Burlington (Essex Junction, Vt.)."

"As we come to the marketplace, we will take advantage of what we do naturally," Mr. Brabazon said. "RF is our strategic direction both internally and externally. We are seeing a lot of interest in RF capability. In fact, we are being asked to do things beyond what we are capable of right now."

He indicated that IBM will, in the near future, enter into a partnership with an RF technology vendor. "John Douglas (manager of analog and mixed-signal market development) has been asked to, within six months, establish a strategic relationship," he said.

IBM established its analog and mixed-signal division in 1973. Since then, it has qualified 13 technologies, and has released more than 400 designs. Two-hundred-and-fifty of those are still active, the oldest dating back to 1977.

IBM Micro offers three CMOS technologies: CMOS2, with voltage down to 5V and up to 60K wireable gates; CMOS4 with as low as 3.3V and up to 375K gates; and CMOS5, a planned family of products with as low as 2.5V and up to 1,300K gates. Its products are available in plastic, ceramic, multi-chip and custom packages.

"We offer a technology advantage," asserted Stuart Martin, IBM Micro's manager of analog and mixed-signal product design. "I don't know of many companies offering state-of-the-art 8-inch tooling, good process control and the many years of experience we provide." The company uses the Six Sigma statistical goal process and, in June of this year, achieved ISO 9001 certification, which it intends to leverage in the European market.

"We have four people in Europe helping educate some of our European design centers on analog and mixed-signal technologies," Mr. Brabazon said.

Although he would not say how much it expects to earn from merchant analog and mixed-signal ASIC sales, Mr. Brabazon said the company has been talking with external customers since first quarter '92 and "for about a year now, we have had pretty steady conversation."

He said that the company's products will be competitively priced. "We offer aggressive technology that provides a cost-effective solution."

He added "We are seeing customer interest grow a lot faster than we thought it would. It is being well received by our customers. The first time we did a projection, we estimated that over a five-year period we would generate half again as much revenue over what we would have earned without selling these products externally. Our most recent projection is that we will earn that much in three years."

IBM Micro's family of analog and mixed-signal technologies is supported by Cadence Design Systems' Design Framework II and IBM's own designers can provide design consultation services from design conception to production, the company said.