AS/400 PowerPC compatible semi-custom technology

This paper describes the technology and semi-custom design aspects of the AS/400 PowerPC chip set. In order to meet the growing demand for AS/400 system performance, a 6 ns cycle time was specified. This requirement, coupled with the desire for a short development cycle, drove the chip team to choose a semi-custom design style utilizing a mature BICMOS technology. Three semi-custom chips and one ASIC were designed and packaged in a multi-chip, high performance package to form the processor engine. >