Re[2]: QLCC urq questions

[awoolhouse@zetex.com]

Can't say for sure but it's possible it IS a custom chip but NOT an ASIC. There 
are several different technologies which are typically grouped under the generic
umbrella definition of ASIC. Some of these are semicustom and therefore cost 
effective at much lower production quantities. The lowest volume semi-custom 
route is perhaps FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) which in 1980 was in its 
infancy with companies like Xilinx. To my knowledge Hitachi has never dabbled in
the FPGA market. I know Hitachi has a number of semicustom routes to silicon and
in fact have become somewhat of a leader in certain parts of this field. Often 
these semicustom devices become a specialist standard product when developed for
a customer - but are unlikely (VERY) to be supplied to parties other than the 
original customer directly.

The other possibility is that they are more generic ASICs configured by 
peripheral circuitry to function in a particular way. If this (long shot) is the
case then it's likely that the same chip will be found in ECUs fitted to cars in
the rest of the VW/Audi group. 

One thing is for sure. I'm not going to take my urq ECU apart and start 
injecting voltages into it to determine the configuration.

Don't know if any of the above 'Geeky' stuff helps. Good luck.

Big Al
85 URQ
95 A62.6V6
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: QLCC urq questions
Author:  Robert.Houk@East.Sun.COM at internet
Date:    28-07-98 15-36


   > It's all done through that one magic chip that no one has been able 
   > to get any documentation for. Hitachi is less than forthcoming with 
   > information about it, other that it's obsolete and they show no
   > "replacement" part number, and would I please go away and quit bothering 
   > them.
     
   One magic chip?  What chip would that be?  I don't actually have an 
   urquattro ECU to look at, so I'm going completely on your annotated 
   code and my HC11 databook. 
     
It's the HD46506 QFP chip mounted on the daughter card immediately below 
the CPU and EPROM locations.
     
   Was the "magic" chip a custom ASIC, or a more generic chip that might 
   be in some [very] old data books?
     
No idea; I looked through what *I* could find, but never found a 46506 
(I did find a 4650x, for some small "x", some multi-function controller 
chip for auto applications, but it wasn't the same thing). I find it 
hard to believe that Audi's MAC02 marketplace warranted a custom ASIC, 
especially at 1980 prices. (On the other hand, the price Audi wants for 
the MAC02...)
     
If you can find it, we'd *ALL* love to see the info!
     
     -RDH
     
P.S. I'm CC'ing the QList in case there's some other newbie (*) 
 ComQuat (Computer Quattro...) Geeks out there who want to 
 accept the challenge of scoring info on the HD46506
     
     
(*) newbie: in the last coupla years, since last this topic
 and yrs trly came up together on the QList