The MCNC Design Initiative Program

The Design Initiative Program is an infrastructure, operated on a competitive basis, that promotes the building of prototype VLSI chips and systems at MCN´s (Microelectronics Center of North Carolina) participating institutions. Through this program, VLSI researchers gain access to a spectrum of resources, including industry-trained chip designers, process engineers, test engineers, VLSI CAD (computer-aided design) tools, MOS technologies, and automatic test equipment (ATE). At this point, 32 research projects have been supported by the Design Initiative Program. Among the major accomplishments have been the development of a massively parallel processor chip, a fuzzy logic interference chip, and a chip set for performing solid modeling