A SILICON-ON-SILICON FIELD-PROGRAMMABLE MULTICHIP-MODULE (FPMCM) - INTEGRATING FPGA AND MCM TECHNOLOGIES

Multichip module technology can dramatically increase the capability o f held programmable logic devices (FPLD's) and held programmable syste ms (FPS). We present the special advantages that MCM's offer FPLD's an d the design of our first-generation field programmable multichip modu le (FPMCM). Our prototype is the first silicon-on-silicon FPMCM and ha s a maximum capacity of 40 K gates and 256 user IO, achieving a factor of four increase in capacity over the FPLD family with which it was d esigned. Our FPMCM has been demonstrated in a system that can deliver 200 MOP's of computing power for image processing applications. FPMCM' s can cost-effectively deliver 4-8 times the capacity of the largest F PLD's and provide even larger reductions in the area of PCB-based fiel d programmable systems. The upper capacity limits for FPMCM are determ ined mainly by the cost and defect density of the substrate technology , As CMOS processed move into the deep-submicron range, FPMCM's will e ven faster and denser substrates.