Plessey Semiconductors Ltd and SGS-Thomson Microelectronics BV duly announced yesterday that they had agreed common development of an advanced family of semi-custom integrated circuits based on a standard cell library in 0.7 micron CMOS technology. The alliance is intended to help the two to define a real European standard in the semi-custom market. By first quarter 1992, the two will second source each others’ offerings to enable designs that are interchangeable at the mask database level. GEC Plessey will adopt the SGS design rules and will align its 0.7 micron process to be electrically compatible with the SGS process. Both also agreed to share resources to improve their computer-aided design and cell development; the combined cell libraries will be supported on the widely used design stations. Future co-operation may extend into programmable logic devices and the development of next generation sea-of-gates devices based on a common 0.5 micron multi-level process.
