Content deleted Content added
PaulBoddie (talk | contribs) m →Development: Fixed page number in archive URL. |
PaulBoddie (talk | contribs) →Concerns with early gate arrays, attempts at innovation: Added ULA Designer reference. |
||
Line 36:
[[Sinclair Research]] ported an enhanced [[Sinclair ZX80|ZX80]] design to a ULA chip for the [[Sinclair ZX81|ZX81]], and later used a ULA in the [[ZX Spectrum]]. A compatible chip was made in Russia as T34VG1.<ref>[[:ru:Т34ВГ1|Т34ВГ1]] — article about the ZX Spectrum ULA compatible chip {{in lang|ru}}</ref> [[Acorn Computers]] used several ULA chips in the [[BBC Micro]], and later a single ULA for the [[Acorn Electron]]. Many other manufacturers from the time of the [[home computer]] boom period used ULAs in their machines. The [[IBM PC]] took over much of the personal computer market, and the sales volumes made full-custom chips more economical. Commodore's Amiga series used gate arrays for the Gary and Gayle custom-chips, as their code-names may suggest.
In an attempt to reduce the costs and increase the accessibility of gate array design and production, Ferranti introduced in 1982 a computer-aided design tool for their uncommitted logic array (ULA) product called ULA Designer. Although costing £46,500 to acquire, this tool promised to deliver reduced costs of around £5,000 per design plus manufacturing costs of £1-2 per chip in high volumes, in contrast to the £15,000 design costs incurred by engaging Ferranti's services for the design process.<ref name="design198203_ferranti">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_design_1982-03_399/page/n20/mode/1up | title=Make chips at home | magazine=Design | date=March 1982 | access-date=1 March 2022 | pages=17 }}</ref>
===Boom===
| |||