Intel already had a structured ASIC capability with its HardCopy product line acquired with its purchase of Altera..

Intel didn’t say why it wants eASIC. It does, however, remove a competitor. 120 eASIC people will move over to the Intel programmable solutions group.

“We can provide a low-cost, automated conversion process from FPGAs (including competing FPGAs) to structured ASICs,” says Intel vp Dan MacNamara,”longer term, we see an opportunity to architect a new class of programmable chip that takes advantage of Intel’s Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge technology to combine Intel FPGAs with structured ASICs in a system in package solution.”

eASIC’s chips are fabbed by TSMC and GloFo. MacNamara said it hadn’t been decided whether Intel would fab future eASIC ICs.