Rochester Electronics Reintroduces AMCC Gate Array Portfolio

Rochester Electronics, the world’s largest authorized manufacturer and distributor of end-of-life and mature semiconductors, has reintroduced the gate array semiconductor portfolio from Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (Nasdaq: AMCC). The portfolio includes five technology nodes and some 500 designs. The production of these components, which is completely authorized by AMCC, was accomplished through a combination of semiconductor replication and continuing manufacture.

Rochester has already re-created and manufactured the largest and most complicated device in the AMCC Q20000 Series, a .6 micron bipolar emitter-coupled logic (ECL) / transistor-transistor logic (TTL) gate-array device called the Q20M100. The Q20000 family is comprised of nine products ranging in density from 450 to 18,777 equivalent gates, including structured arrays with 1.25GHz phase-locked loops (PLLs). With the re-creation of the largest and most complicated device in the family, the re-creation of the rest of the Q20000 family is enabled. The Q20000 family is optimized to provide high performance and proven reliability in advanced commercial, industrial, military, and aerospace applications. For many equipment manufacturers who use this part, availability from Rochester has eliminated the need for system re-designs, saving them millions of dollars in related re-design and qualification costs. Rochester is also authorized to re-create and manufacture the AMCC Q14000 Series BiCMOS logic arrays, Q5000 Series ECL/TTL logic arrays, Q1500 Series logic arrays, and the Q700 Series logic arrays.

“With full permission from AMCC, Rochester is now the contractually licensed continuing source of AMCC gate array devices,” said Paul Gerrish, co-president at Rochester Electronics. “Semiconductor re-creation and continuing manufacturing is a cost-effective and time-saving alternative to system re-design when critical semiconductors are no longer available from authorized sources. Rochester engineers use complex reverse-engineering techniques to recreate the device and provide a replacement that matches the original semiconductor’s physical features, layer by layer and pin for pin, and is guaranteed to perform exactly as the AMCC original.”

AMCC provided its gate array product IP and design archive databases to Rochester, enabling Rochester to produce a continuing supply of authorized devices through Rochester’s Semiconductor Replication Process (SRP). Rochester’s sophisticated SRP combines archive identification, tear down of sample product, process match, source-to-target comparison, detailed SPICE analysis, and testing to the original manufacturer’s specifications and beyond, to exactly match the form, fit, and function of the AMCC original gate array devices.

“With our authorization and IP, Rochester Electronics will continue to manufacture these parts for as long as they are needed. By making these critical parts available, Rochester will save OEMs the cost of having to re-design their systems or rely on suspect parts from unauthorized sources,” said Alan Sorgi, director of IP portfolio management at AMCC.

Rochester Electronics

AppliedMicro