Cupertino, California-based MicroModule Systems Inc has announced the completion of its agreement to acquire the assets and technology of Digital Equipment Corp’s high-density micromodule chip development and manufacturing plant in Cupertino. The start-up company, which opened its doors in June as an independent supplier of multichip packaging and subsystems, bought out the DEC operation as a going concern, on undisclosed terms. DEC still holds a minority equity position in the company, which is staffed by ex-DEC employees, and remains a customer of its multichip modules. The cost of keeping the micromodule manufacturing operation was draning money, with DEC unable to find enough business within its organisation to justify the plant staying open. The plant, which used to manufacture multichip modules for the DEC VAX 9000, will now produce chips for DEC’s Ultrix systems. According to the company’s product manager, Howard Green, it’s a fair assumption to make that the company will be doing implementations for the Alpha, but we’re still negotiating terms. The technology itself – originally developed by IBM Corp to produce a higher speed packaged die on silicon for its Thermal Conduction Module takes multiple silicon or ceramic wafers and lays a high density raw die on top of it, which binds a series of chips in a single package. With the first chips hot off the press, the firm is targeting the workstation and personal computer markets, especially systems houses and telecommunication specialists. MicroModule Systems has also developed accompanying software to test the sub-strates of the die, and the finished micromodule.
