MOSIS
Encyclopedia
MOSIS is probably the oldest (1981) integrated circuit
(IC) foundry
service and one of the first Internet services other than supercomputing
services and basic infrastructure such as E-mail
or FTP
.
MOSIS is operated by the Information Sciences Institute
at the University of Southern California
(USC). MOSIS merges multiple IC designs submitted by both companies and
universities onto multi-project wafers
(MPW) to share the cost of fabrication among multiple users.
MOSIS has prototyped more than 50,000 chip designs for businesses, government agencies and universities. Between 1990 and 2003, some 66,539 students learned chip design in MOSIS-associated programs and a total of 13,734 designs were fabricated.
Many of the early users of MOSIS were students using IC layout techniques from the seminal book Introduction to VLSI Design (ISBN ) by Caltech professors Carver Mead
and Lynn Conway
.
Some early RISC processors such as SPARC
and MIPS
were run through MOSIS during their early design and testing phases.
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
(IC) foundry
Foundry (electronics)
In the microelectronics industry a semiconductor fabrication plant is a factory where devices such as integrated circuits are manufactured....
service and one of the first Internet services other than supercomputing
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
services and basic infrastructure such as E-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
or FTP
File Transfer Protocol
File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server...
.
MOSIS is operated by the Information Sciences Institute
Information Sciences Institute
The Information Sciences Institute is a research and development unit of the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering which focuses on computer and communications technology and information processing...
at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
(USC). MOSIS merges multiple IC designs submitted by both companies and
universities onto multi-project wafers
Multi Project Chip
Multi-Project Chip or Multi-Project Wafer services integrate onto microelectronics wafers a number of different integrated circuit designs from various teams including designs from private firms, students and researchers from universities. Because IC fabrication costs are extremely high, it makes...
(MPW) to share the cost of fabrication among multiple users.
MOSIS has prototyped more than 50,000 chip designs for businesses, government agencies and universities. Between 1990 and 2003, some 66,539 students learned chip design in MOSIS-associated programs and a total of 13,734 designs were fabricated.
Many of the early users of MOSIS were students using IC layout techniques from the seminal book Introduction to VLSI Design (ISBN ) by Caltech professors Carver Mead
Carver Mead
Carver Andress Mead is a US computer scientist. He currently holds the position of Gordon and Betty Moore Professor Emeritus of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology , having taught there for over 40 years.Mead studied electrical engineering at Caltech, getting...
and Lynn Conway
Lynn Conway
Lynn Conway is an American computer scientist, electrical engineer, inventor, trans woman, and activist for the transgender community....
.
Some early RISC processors such as SPARC
SPARC
SPARC is a RISC instruction set architecture developed by Sun Microsystems and introduced in mid-1987....
and MIPS
MIPS Technologies
MIPS Technologies, Inc. , formerly MIPS Computer Systems, Inc., is most widely known for developing the MIPS architecture and a series of pioneering RISC chips. MIPS provides processor architectures and cores for digital home, networking and mobile applications.MIPS Computer Systems Inc. was...
were run through MOSIS during their early design and testing phases.