CompuServe Messages

Presumably by "Akiko type chips" you mean ASIC (Application-Specific IC's — kinda like a mondo gate array). The whole point of such a chip is to reduce parts counts by integrating a few general-purpose chips into one. Having "a lot" of them doesn't make sense. Akiko saves a few dollars in a very price-critical system. It helps a system sell for $399 that might otherwise sell for $450 or something (I don't know exact numbers and would produce them if I did). It could make a high-end system sell for $1999 instead of $2099 — if you were lucky. See, Akiko works in CD32 because CD32 doesn't have all the standard computer ports, so you don't need the full functionality of two 8520's, etc. By integrating what would otherwise be a gate array or two, two 8520's and other miscelany into a fairly small package, you get a big win. This small package doesn't have as many pins as all the other packages combined, because they aren't all needed in CD32. If you had to have all the lines from the 8520s, for example, the expense of the ASIC packaging (with the extra size and pins) might offset any savings in the reduced chip count. It'll probably happen anyway because there are reasons to do it other than parts cost, but it isn't going to drastically reduce the price of systems. That issue aside, there isn't much else left to put in a second ASIC anyway. You could get a hybrid chip to integrate a bunch of the analog circuitry, but I don't think the EE types call that an ASIC. The custom chips aren't a candidate for integration. The AA and any future Amiga custom chips have a high transistor count. You can't integrate them much further because there aren't economical processes (if any at all) to manufacture the resulting monster chip. Look at what an 040 or 486dx or pentium or 060 cost… Dale Larson – An Amiga Software Engineer with less and less time on his hands.