Fully Synthesizable Microprocessor Core via HDL Porting

The level of integration has been rapidly increasing with advances in semiconductor technology. Many HP design groups have capitalized on this capability to create highly integrated ASICs, or superchips. Superchips that integrate conventional ASIC logic, microprocessors, embedded RAM and ROM, and other megacell functions save cost, power, board space, and inventory overhead and increase I/O performance at the same time. This industry-wide trend has put an increased burden on ASIC suppliers to come up with megacells that are off-the-shelf, proven, and testable. As an ASIC supplier to other HP divisions, we at HP’s Integrated Circuit Business Division (ICBD) licensed several early microprocessors that customers demanded and artwork-ported them into our process. All superchips built at ICBD today contain artwork-ported microprocessors.