Save big, don't go small - [electronics chip design]

Since the late 1990s, people have complained bitterly about the rapidly rising cost of nonrecurrent engineering (NRE) charges on chip designs and what would quickly become the biggest component of those charges: the amount of money needed to make a full set of layout masks. In little more than ten years, the price for a mask set went from tens of thousands of dollars through hundreds of thousands and now sits in the glow millions. This paper discussed the chips design process and use a new model to deep-submicron that can massively reduce the capital investment. The majority of fabless companies will definitely require a new model. The COT model can only be used by companies with huge operational teams. The majority will need a new model.