Nation's first high-tech chip facility opens in ÐÂÀ˲ÊƱ
Thursday, 8 August 2002
ÐÂÀ˲ÊƱ's reputation as a burgeoning centre of IT capability will receive a further boost tomorrow (Friday) with the official opening of a high-tech microchip testing facility at the University of ÐÂÀ˲ÊƱ.
The first of its type in Australia, the testing facility will enable defence, research and development organizations and the manufacturing industry to test and prototype the latest microchip designs.
The facility is one of five around the nation which form the National Networked Tele-Test Facility for Integrated Systems (NNTTF), with the others to be opened soon in Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The central NNTTF "node" is based at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia.
The ÐÂÀ˲ÊƱ facility is based at CHiPTec, the University of ÐÂÀ˲ÊƱ's microelectronics research centre. CHiPTec director, Dr Cheng-Chew Lim, says the NNTTF is an important development for Australia, enabling industry to remain technologically advanced by being able to use the very latest microchip technology when developing new products.
"The NTTFF will be of benefit to both industry and the University of ÐÂÀ˲ÊƱ, as we no longer have to send chips we design at CHiPTec overseas to be tested," Dr Lim says. "By testing them here, it reduces turnaround time quite substantially, and also safeguards CHiPTec's intellectual property."
A unique quality of the NTTFF is that the chip testing is actually conducted over the Internet, with the prototype chips sent to the central node at Edith Cowan University. CHiPTec researchers then use the Internet and webcams to conduct the tests themselves.
The NTTFF was es