The IIS Chip Gallery
Lasagna (1994)
by
| Application | Industrial |
| Technology | 1200 |
| Manufacturer | VLSI Tech |
| Type | Semester Thesis |
| Package | DIP28 |
| Dimensions | 5500μm x 4000μm |
| Gates | 10 kGE |
| Voltage | 5 V |
| Clock | 0.2 MHz |
Many engineers use both a Sun workstation for CAE tasks and an Apple Machintosh for text and graphics processing. While methods for sharing monitors between two machines exist, users are still required to keep two sets of keyboards and mice on their desks, which wastes a lot of desk space and often creates ergonomically unpleasant situations.
The Lasagna ASIC makes it possible to operate both a Sun SPARCstation and an Apple Machintosh with a single keyboard and a mouse(either MAchintosh or Sun) by translating between the Apple and Sun peripherall protocols.
The above description is now almost 20 years old. In the mean time, Keyboard-Video-Mouse (KVM) Switches are commonplace (In fact I am using one while typing this). Sun Sparcstation CAE workstations have been replaced by Linux PCs using USB keyboard and mice, just like the new generation Apple computers (which are still around).