Multi Project Chip
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Multi-Project Chip (MPC) services integrate onto a into a single microelectronics chip block several different integrated circuit designs from various teams including the exercise designs of students, prototype designs of researchers from university laboratories, non-profit research institutes, and also private firms, Because IC fabrication costs are extremely high it makes sense to share these resources by several smaller designs to be fabricted in very low quantities. For delivery to a particular participant of a MPC only his or her circuit is bonded to the contacts of the package. Worldwide, a major number of such MPC services is available from governement-supported institutions or from private firms.
The first well known MPC service has been MOSIS (Metal Oxide Silicon Implementation Service), established by DARPA as a technical and human infrastructure for VLSI. MOSIS has been based on the innovative MultiProject Chip (MPC) service created by Lynn Conway in 1981. Quite famous is the early MPC organized for the M.I.T. 1978 VLSI System Design Course held by Lynn Conway. Not only for university researchers MOSIS has been an important means of quickly manufacturing limited numbers of microelectronic devices at reasonable cost. New designs could be fabricated within 4 to 10 weeks.
With MOSIS, researchers and students submitted designs for fabrication in open (i. e., non-proprietory) VLSI layout design rules and a standardized format through the ARPANET or, subsequently, e-mail. Requests from different locations and different designers were pooled into common lots and run through the fabrication process. The completed chips were returned to the researchers. No direct interaction with the fabrication line was needed by the MOSIS users. MOSIS was used by researchers at more than 360 institutions by 1989.
