
GEM21 is a gate matrix developed as part of a collaborative project of Ei Niš – Semiconductor Factory with the Faculty of Electronics in Niš and Rudi Čajevac from Banja Luka in 1984 and 1985. The circuit was later being produced in the Ei Semiconductor Factory. Gate matrices are LSI circuits whose gates have no predefined purpose, e.g. circuits with transistor matrices whose gates aren’t initially connected. The gates of such transistors can be connected into NOT or NOR circuits in the last phase of production or post-production, and those can later be integrated into complex logic circuits which can perform a specific function in an electronic device. The main advatange of these chips was their adaptability, together with the fact that they were suitable for small-scale production, which was convenient for the domestic market of electronic devices, the logics of which were enabled/performed by this circuit. Applying GEM21 decreases the number of passive components, the number of other integrated circuits with a specific purpose and the size of the device PCBs. Apart from the circuit itself, the accompanying software for simulation and verification/validation of the gate matrix was also developed.
“Further collective/mutual effort will result in the development of GEM23, and it will end with the potential needs of Yugoslavia up until the year 2000.’’ – B. Trokić, 1986. Unfortunately, GEM23 was never developed, and besides that project, both Ei Semiconductor Factory and Rudi Čajevac collapsed, as well as Yugoslavia. At the time when GEM21 was being produced, you’d be greeted by a huge sign that reads ’’Welcome to the city of electronics!’’ when entering Niš, and 35 years later came the ’’golden age’’ when the majority of production at the field of electronics in Niš boils down to the production and assembly of cables for the automobile industry (which is also Serbia’s number one exported product).
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