Hard copy
From Free net encyclopedia
- For the television series, see Hard Copy.
In computer graphics and telecommunications, a hard copy is a permanent reproduction, on any media suitable for direct use by a person (in particular paper), of displayed or transmitted data.
Examples of hard copy include teleprinter pages, continuous printed tapes, facsimile pages, computer printouts, and radiophoto prints.
Magnetic tapes, diskettes, and nonprinted punched paper tapes are not hard copy.
Source: from Federal Standard 1037C and MIL-STD-188.
In semiconductor electronics, an ASIC hard copy can be made of an FPGA.
Hard copy normally refers to the Altera technique of producing a structured cell asic where the cells are the same design as the FPGA, but the programmable routing is replaced with fixed wire interconnect. These devices then do not need and cannot be re-programming as an FPGA.
The Xilinx version involves screening their defective wafers so that defective parts can be used for fixed design. This method works because most of an FPGA is unused in most designs and therefore a defective piece of logic will not affect all designs, therefore chips which are useless for general use are perfectly acceptable for a verified design. These devices still require support logic to program them and although they can be reprogrammed in the field it is not recommended as not all devices are guaranteed to work with the new layout.
External links
- Hard copy as defined in Federal Standard 1037C.
- Hard Copy Altera's Hard Copy
- Easy Path Xilinx's Hard Copy.