The "original process" of integrated circuit design was cutting rubylith - this was well into the 70s. The venerable MOS 6502 was done this way as was the Intel 8008.
The verb tapeout was used for litho prior to integrated circuits though, back into the 40s.
But you should realize that PCBs and integrated circuits predate generally available computers and digital data storage.
> exported to a data tape for transport to the fab.
There was an article in The Register years ago that promulgated this misattribution - it was generally never a reliable source, no exception here.
That's why IC layouts used to be called "floor plans". They were floor-sized drawings on which people laid out lines with tape. The floor plan was then photographed from above and color-separated into masks.
"Back into the 40s?" ICs aren't that old.
Printed circuit boards have long been laid out by hand, and sometimes still are, but they're not usually photo-reduced. They're laid out at full scale.
I think the parent is saying that the verb 'tapeout' goes back to litho processes before litho's use in IC production, not that IC production went back to the 40s.
Can confirm. When I was a kid I was an offset printer. We used rubylith for that. Then I learned PC design. Rubylith again. Then I went to work for an IC design firm. No rubylith there; our product produced Gerber file tapes. But the old-timers still called it "taping out" because it used rubylith before the Gerber days.
What do you think they did in the early days, before such things as data tapes or anything that could read them even existed? It used to be all photo masks, and the masters for those photo masks were made with... tape. Usually rubylith. Always by hand.
