Asiliant Technologies
 | |
| Industry | Semiconductors |
|---|---|
| Founded | December 1984 |
| Founder | Gordon A. Campbell, Dado Banatao |
| Defunct | Template:End date and age |
| Fate | Acquired by Intel |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | SoCs, GPUs |
| Website | Template:Web archive |
Chips and Technologies, Inc. (C&T) was among the pioneering fabless semiconductor companys established in December 1984 in Milpitas, California, founded by Gordon A. Campbell alongside Dado Banatao.
Their initial offering, revealed in September 1985, was a four-chip EGA chipset that integrated 19 proprietary EGA chips originally from IBM. By the time of November's COMDEX event, more than six firms had introduced EGA-compatible graphics cards utilizing C&T’s chipset. This early achievement paved the way for additional chipsets tailored for PC motherboards as well as other graphics processors.
In 1997, Intel acquired C&T with a primary focus on its graphics chip operations.
Ex-employees of C&T went on to launch Asiliant Technologies in January 2000 to provide support for CHIPS 65545, 65550, 65555, 69000, 69030, among other notebook and LCD graphics ICs. Intel granted Asiliant licensing rights to manufacture and distribute C&T components until the company ceased operations.
x86 products
Chips and Technologies developed the SuperMath J38700DX, a floating point coprocessor compatible with the 80387DX.
They also engineered the Super386 38600DX/38600SX microprocessor, designed to be compatible with the Intel 80386 using clean room design methodologies. Despite this, it did not achieve the market penetration enjoyed by competitors such as Intel, AMD, and Cyrix. The C&T 38605DX included a 512-byte cache but was housed in a unique 144-pin PGA package that was incompatible with standard 386 sockets.
Motherboard chips and chipsets
- 82C100 - Launched in 1987, this component supported IBM PS/2 Model 30 and Super XT machines compatible with CPUs like 8086, 80C86, V30, 8088, 80C88, and V20. It consolidated all PC/XT functionalities including clock generation, bus control, DMA controllers, interrupt controllers, DRAM/SRAM controllers, keyboard controller, parity generation, EMS control, dual clock operation, power management, and allowed up to 2.5 MB of RAM.
- 82C206 - Debuted in 1986 as the centerpiece of the NEAT (New Enhanced AT) chipset. It replaced numerous TTL chips on IBM PC/AT motherboards by integrating the clock generator, bus controller, timers, interrupt controllers, DMA controllers, along with NVRAM/RTC features.
- 82C235 - Known as Single Chip AT (SCAT), introduced in 1989 to support PC/AT compatibility. It accommodated LIM EMS 4.0 standards with memory capacity up to 16 MB and included Shadow RAM support.
- 82C351 / CS82310 (PEAK DM) - A three-chip follow-up to NEAT designed for 32-bit 386DX processors. The PEAK DM/386 chipset supported memory capacities up to 128MB (typically implemented as 32MB) and featured up to 256KB of direct-mapped L2 cache.
- 82C836 - Single Chip 386sx AT (SCATsx), compatible with PC/AT bus architecture. This chip added support for i386SX CPUs and i387SX math coprocessors with optional external L2 cache while preserving SCAT functionalities.
Video chips
Chips and Technologies was the pioneer outside IBM to introduce a chipset compatible with the Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA), comprising four distinct components: the 82C431 Graphics Controller, 82C432 Sequencer, 82C433 Attributes Controller, and 82C434 CRT Controller.
Subsequently, C&T launched a "Super EGA" chipset consisting of two chips: the 82C435 Enhanced Graphics Controller and the 82A436 Bus Interface, which supported display resolutions up to 800×600 at a 38MHz clock speed.
Additionally, C&T was the first non-IBM company to produce a compatible Video Graphics Array (VGA) chipset, the 82C451, enabling VGA graphics cards in 1987 concurrent with VGA’s initial release. This development paved the way for the IBM-compatible graphics sector, later joined by firms such as Trident Microsystems, Western Digital, Cirrus Logic, Oak Technology, among others until market saturation occurred.
The 82C480/82C481 chipsets provided full compatibility with the IBM 8514/A graphics controller and enhanced 2D graphical user interface operations through a 32-bit VRAM interface.
Chips and Technologies also created the Wingine video card, a high-speed framebuffer designed specifically for a proprietary local bus slot found on certain motherboards from Epson and JCIS. The Wingine gained popularity among users running NEXTSTEP on Intel processors due to its superior performance.
Their most recent HiQVision series (models 65550, 65554, 65555, 68554, 69000, and 69030) targeted affordable yet high-performance integrated solutions featuring direct flatpanel/LCD drive support.
Apple integrated multiple C&T controllers in its PowerBook lineup: employing the 65550 in the PowerBook 3400, the enhanced 65554 in the "Kanga" PowerBook G3 derived from the 3400 platform, and the 65525A in early NuBus PowerBooks such as the PowerBook 1400.
Eventually, C&T concentrated on entry-level video markets; their 65555 chip included an LVDS transmitter and achieved design wins in early Compaq Armada notebook computers.
See also
- OPTi Inc., a chipset manufacturer established by former Chips and Technologies personnel
- S3 Graphics
- List of Intel chipsets
External links
- Paul McLellan. A Brief History of Chips and Technologies SemiWiki.com
- Chips&Technologies 82C451 Datasheet