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What did Simtek get by buying MacroTech?
Simtek acquired all outstanding MacroTech stock under the share-exchange agreement. The consideration was 1,250,000 Simtek common shares; the transaction documents do not describe this as a cash purchase. MacroTech brought chip-design capabilities and a scalable architecture for cost-optimized products across a range of chip sizes and functions.
Contemporary reporting said the technology could support replacement parts of up to one million logic gates and correspondingly large memories. The reported manufacturing base was Chartered Semiconductor’s 0.35-micron process, with plans to scale to 0.25- and 0.18-micron processes. Those were stated plans, not confirmation that products at the smaller process nodes entered production.
How did the acquisition fit Simtek’s PLD strategy?
Simtek’s established business centered on nonvolatile memory, including nvSRAM. ILSI, acquired in May 2000, and MacroTech extended the company’s reach into programmable-logic replacement. Simtek said the acquisitions gave it an opportunity to use its existing sales, marketing and operations infrastructure across the expanded business.
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The strategic distinction was between selling a programmable device that customers could configure and developing a more fixed replacement chip for a particular design. MacroTech’s architecture was presented as a way to build replacement products across a broad range of logic and memory sizes. The million-gate figure describes the reported scale of that capability; it is not evidence that every vendor’s device family or every design could be replaced.
Was this an FPGA-to-ASIC conversion play?
Yes, that became a visible part of Simtek’s follow-on logic strategy. In January 2001, Simtek described a Simtek Integrated Logic division converting Xilinx XC4000 FPGA designs into ASIC products. EDN reported Simtek’s claims that these conversions could use half the power, yield prototypes in eight weeks after approval of the customer’s design archive, and save at least 50% in cost compared with the original FPGA.
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These were company claims reported in 2001, not independent comparative test results or guarantees for every design. The eight-week period was tied to approval of the design archive, not necessarily the full time from initial customer contact to finished production parts.
Could Simtek replace Xilinx, Altera or other vendors’ parts?
The available historical claims support a specific Xilinx example: conversion of designs based on the XC4000 family into ASIC replacements. The MacroTech acquisition announcement described a broad replacement capability, but it did not establish compatibility with every Xilinx product or with Altera, Actel or AMD families. Nor does the later XC4000 example prove that Simtek offered a direct, interchangeable substitute for all programmable devices.
An FPGA-to-ASIC conversion is generally a design-specific replacement rather than a pin-for-pin, reprogrammable alternative. The customer’s logic is implemented in a chip tailored to that design, so the conversion path depends on the design data and engineering work. That can make a fixed replacement attractive where a design is stable, while sacrificing the flexibility to reconfigure the original FPGA.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the historical record does—and does not—show
| Question | What the 2000–2001 reporting establishes |
|---|---|
| Transaction | Effective July 31, 2000; all outstanding MacroTech stock acquired for 1,250,000 Simtek common shares. |
| Reported scale | Replacement parts up to one million gates and correspondingly large memories, according to contemporary reporting. |
| Process roadmap | Products made at 0.35 micron, with 0.25- and 0.18-micron scaling planned in contemporary reporting. |
| Named conversion target | Xilinx XC4000 FPGA designs, identified in Simtek’s January 2001 description of Simtek Integrated Logic. |
| Other vendor-family compatibility | Not established for Altera, Actel or AMD in the cited historical claims. |
| Current ownership or availability | Not established by the 2000–2001 transaction and product reporting. |
The acquisition is best understood as a historical expansion of Simtek’s logic business, not as evidence of a currently available replacement service or product line. The cited material documents the transaction, its stated strategic purpose and a later XC4000 conversion offer; it does not establish what happened to the products, business or ownership after that period.
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