- When I look inside a chip from the popular 7400 series, I know what to expect: a fairly simple die, implemented in a straightforward, cost-effective way. However, when I looked inside a military-grade chip built by Integrated Device Technology (IDT)4 I found a very unexpected layout: over 1500 transistors in an orderly matrix. Even stranger, most of the die is wasted: less than 20% of these transistors are used, forming scattered circuits connected by thin metal wires.
- 7400-series integrated circuits