[sdiy] MN3207 and MN3102 Reissues

[Theo]

Wouldn't part of the equipment you need be a clean room building with a
$2000000 energy bill?
Theo

----- Original Message -----
From: Cornutt, David K <david.k.cornutt at boeing.com>
To: <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 10:55 PM
Subject: RE: [sdiy] MN3207 and MN3102 Reissues


> From: Scott Stites [mailto:scottnoanh at peoplepc.com]
> > I just assumed.  What are the logistics of doing something like that?
>
> I'm not the expert, but there are two things that
> come to mind:
>
> 1.  Finding someone with the right process equipement for
> whatever kind of fab process was used.  Now, it seems to
> me that there should be a lot of older fab equipment
> floating around that someone could pick up pretty cheaply
> and use to go into business of reissuing older parts
> (assuming that a demand exists).  But I don't know that
> for sure; maybe all the fabs just scrap their old equipment
> every time they cut over to a new process.
>
> 2.  Getting the masks.  First, you have to get the rights
> from the design copyright holder.  The Intels and Nationals
> of the world still hold rights to lots of things that are
> out of production, and for some reason they often don't
> seem to be very interested in licensing even though it
> would be essentially free money for them.  Then there's
> the practical problem of actually getting the masks in
> a CAD format that is compatible.  This gets to be a problem
> if you are going back further than about 1985, and it's
> really a problem for pre-1975 parts that were all hand drawn.
>