Acknowledgments.
1. Running Start.
About This Book. Some Words to Know.
2. Semiconductor Family Tree.
Semiconductor Family Tree. Simple Analog Components. Advanced Analog Components. A/D and D/A Converters. MEMS. Medium-Scale Digital Chips. Highly Integrated Digital Chips.
3. How Chips Are Designed.
Old-Style Design Process. New-Style Design Process. Verifying the Design Works. Using Outside IP. Getting to Tape Out and Film. Current Problems and Future Trends.
4. How Chips Are Made.
Clean Rooms and Fabs. Developing Technology: Chips and Photography. Silicon Ingots to Start. Polishing the Wafer Smooth. Building the Layer Cake. Laser Surgery: Etching Away the Transistors. Step and Repeat. Etching Bath. Ready for the Metal Round. Testing Phase. Bringing Out the Diamonds. Sorting the Fast from the Merely Good. Wrap It Up. How Many Nanometers in a Micron? Let's Get Small.
5. Business and Markets.
Worldwide Production of Semiconductors. Worldwide Consumption of Semiconductors. Military Electronics. The Business of Making Semiconductors.
6. Essential Guide to Microprocessors.
Overview of Microprocessors. Microprocessor History and Evolution. What's a Processor Architecture? Microprocessor Anatomy and Gazetteer. What Do 4-Bit, 8-Bit, 16-Bit, and 32-Bit Mean? Performance, Benchmarks, and Gigahertz. What Is Software? Choosing Microprocessors. Microprocessor Future Trends.
7. Essential Guide to Memory Chips.
Overview of Memory Chips. Nonvolatile ROM. Volatile RAM. Memory Interfaces. Future Memories.
8. Essential Guide to Custom and Configurable Chips.
Overview of Custom Chips. Field-Programmable Chips. Custom ASIC Chips. Dynamically Reconfigurable Chips. Intellectual Property Licensing. Future Outlook for Custom Chips.
9. Theory.
Digital and Binary Concepts. Gates and Logic Functions. How Transistors Work. About Electrons and Electronics.
Appendix: Standard Bodies and Reference.
Standards Bodies and Organizations. Conferences and Trade Shows. Other Resources.
Glossary.
Index.
