A class of semiconductor companies that design, test, market and sell ICs, but subcontract wafer manufacturing by forming alliances with silicon wafer manufacturers. Flash Memory A type of programmable chip that retains data even when the power is turned off. 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.