One of the reasons that the Arm architecture is so popular is that it addresses customers concerns about security of supply. In the event that an Arm-based chip is no longer available to buy, the legacy software that was developed for it can be ported and re-used on another Arm device from a different supplier.
Customers in the Hi-Rel segment face additional challenges in security of supply, as conventional Rad-Hard-By-Design (RHBD) techniques and high temperature Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) processes limit the options of foundries that can be used to manufacture chips. The M&A boom in the semiconductor industry will likely exaggerate the trend of wafer fab consolidation and closures.
Hi-Rel products tend to be consumed in low volume compared to commercial products, so they carry a higher risk of discontinuation from an ‘end-of-life’ (EOL) event. Longevity favors products that run in high-volume mainstream wafer fabs.
VORAGO Technologies HARDSIL® solution can provide longevity of radiation hardened or high temperature IC availability for customers who are facing security of supply issues. Existing FPGAs, ASICs and processors that have been developed using RHBD or SOI techniques can be ported over to HARDSIL enabled CMOS-based solutions and manufactured in non-boutique standard CMOS wafer fabs.
HARDSIL based products meet the same challenging Hi-Rel performance specifications, but are based on CMOS, so do not face the security of supply issues that have always been a problem for specialized RHBD and SOI chips.
The icing on the cake is that a HARDSIL ‘equivalent’ device will have a smaller die, consume less power and will benefit from the lower cost and portability of mainstream CMOS manufacturing.
It takes about 15 weeks to port an existing chip from RHBD or SOI into HARDSIL, depending on the availability of RTL and other IP.