Foundry A silicon wafer fabrication facility. Also called a fab. Gate The most basic logic element. More gates equates to higher density. A single piece of silicon on which thousands or millions of transistors are combined.
ICs are the major building blocks of modern electronic systems.
Logic is used for data manipulation and control functions that require higher speed than a microprocessor can provide. Mask programmed gate array A customizable device that is programmed during the IC manufacturing process. A digital IC that can be programmed by the user to perform a wide variety of logical operations. FPGAs and CPLDs are classes of PLDs. The procedures used to convert blank silicon wafers into finished wafers containing hundreds to thousands of chips.