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> Technically, the use case in the network industry should be called an ASSP (Application Specific Standard Product), but network engineers are simple people, so we prefer to call it an ASIC. Strictly speaking, ASIC only refers to "a custom chip for a specific customer for a narrow application". If the chip is available to the general public, it's not an ASIC but an ASSP. So a Wi-Fi chipset [0], an Ethernet controller or an LCD driver on the public market are all ASSPs, never ASICs. But colloquially speaking, for many people, "ASIC" is a synonym for all custom chips, so almost everything is ASIC, even if the chip is a general-purpose CPU, many will call it "ASIC" if it's someone's original design. Loose term, but it's not really bothering anyone, so this usage remains. Oh, and the word "chipset" has a similar problem. It originally refers to the ASIC/ASSP on the computer motherboard (originally IBM PC's I/O controller, but also graphics and sound), but nowadays it's often used as a synonym of "ASSP", in other words, "highly integrated chip designed for a specific application in mind", hence Wi-Fi chipset, 5G chipset... |