VLSI Technology Inc has won a stunning accolade from Hitachi Ltd with a broad exchange agreement on applications-specific circuitry. Under the agreement, VLSI, San Jose, will transfer its application-specific integrated circuit design technolgy for use in Hitachi’s semiconductor and integrated circuits divisions, and in return will get Hitachi’s advanced CMOS process technology and manufacturing expertise, applicable as 1.0 micron geometries and below. The pair will also share cell libraries. There will also be mutual foundry support in the US and Japan. VLSI is particularly excited at being able to add Hitachi’s microprocessors and microcontrollers – including 64180, H8, H16, H32 – to its cell library.
