A History of Chiplets: Revolutionizing Chip Design

The history of chiplet technology is intricately linked to the ever-evolving nature of the semiconductor industry. Let's delve into the key milestones that shaped the rise of chiplets and their impact on design approaches.

Makimoto's Wave and the Cycle of Integration

In 1991, Dr. Tsugio Makimoto observed a fascinating pattern in the industry: a cyclical shift between standardization and customization roughly every decade. This concept, known as Makimoto's Wave, accurately predicted the industry's progression from standard discrete components in the 1950s to the rise of Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The following decade saw the dominance of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), followed by the era of System-on-Chip (SoC) and System-in-Package (SiP) solutions.

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