A Historical Look at the VAX: Microprocessor Economics (2006)

Re:A Historical Look at the VAX: Microprocessor Economics (2... by bsder on Thursday June 17, 2021 @08:14PM (#27545920)

Here's the real problem: DEC was doing hand designed processors to get a 20% improvement when everybody else could get 100% by waiting 18 months and riding Moore's law.

What made this possible? Chemechanical polishing.

Why? Because you suddenly had more than 2 layers of metal.

Synthesis systems suck rotten eggs when they don't have lots of routing resources.

Once you had 5+ layers of metal, standard cell synthesis systems are a NoBrainer(tm). You make alternate layers orthogonal and put power and ground on the topmost level.

At that point, anyone not riding the synthesis train was roadkill.

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Re:A Historical Look at the VAX: Microprocessor Economics (2... by TanjB on Saturday June 19, 2021 @04:37PM (#27564255)

Ironic. CMP was developed and perfected at IBM, who used it to make complex low volume products.

Excellent insight. CMP and damascene metal (guess who!) really kicked CMOS into top gear.

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