Convert area of ASIC into kilo-gate equivalent kGE
The number of gates per unit area is a function of many parameters, including the particular design rules for each manufacturer. If one manufacturer has more layers of interconnect than another then the effective gate density may be much higher even if the transistor geometry is very similar. The architecture and structure of the chip can also be a factor. For example, chips where a large fraction of the area is devoted to memory will have more transistors per unit area than chips that have complex processors. Manufacturers often assume that four transistors is the equivalent of a gate, which is a pretty crude metric. The bottom line is that comparing different IC manufacturers at a given process node, or the same manufacturer at different process nodes, is not very meaningful.