What Is an ASIC?
An ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) is, unlike general-purpose chips, an integrated circuit custom-designed for one specific application. It does that job most efficiently.
Why Custom Design?
A microcontroller does every job in software but loses efficiency for its flexibility. An ASIC, being built in hardware just for that job, is much faster, smaller and lower-power.
Cost Trade-off
An ASIC's development (NRE) cost is very high; design and mask production can be millions of dollars. But at high volume the per-unit cost drops sharply. So it only makes sense at very high production volumes.
| Property | ASIC | General chip |
|---|---|---|
| Efficiency | Highest | Medium |
| Flexibility | None | High |
| Unit cost (at volume) | Very low | Medium |
Difference From an FPGA
An FPGA is reprogrammable in the field; an ASIC is fixed in production and can't be changed. Usually a design is tried on an FPGA and, once proven, committed to an ASIC for high volume.
Where Is It Used?
Phone processors, network chips, crypto-mining hardware, image processing and high-volume consumer electronics.
Full-Custom and Semi-Custom ASIC
ASICs split into two by design method: full-custom, where every transistor is designed by hand, is the highest-performance but most expensive method; standard-cell combines ready-made logic blocks to speed up development. Most modern ASICs use the standard-cell method to balance cost and time.
Common Mistakes
- ASIC at low volume: at small quantities the NRE cost can't be recovered.
- No margin for error: once produced it can't be fixed; verification is critical.
- Long lead time: development takes months-to-years, not suited to fast time-to-market.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is an ASIC programmable?+
Why is it so efficient?+
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