DavidG, DavidG...
It looks like you still don't understand my refute from the reveal thread. Please, please seek help. I'm going to waste my time responding, once again, just because your quackery really pisses me off. I don't even get the satisfaction of being right--calling you out long before the incident, because you're still able to draw attention to yourself and in all likelihood are still profiting.
1) It's common knowledge that Alpha Denshi designed the hardware, so you might want to revise "Chapter 1". The "Alpha" in Alpha-8921 *is* exactly short for Alpha Denshi, you moron. Did it ever occur to you that the identifier actually refers to an Alpha Denshi part predating the Neo Geo?
Alpha/SNK (originally Alpha, later SNK) implemented the logic into Fujitsu/NEC/Toshiba gate arrays which is an automated workflow; nobody at Alpha or SNK had anything to do with the chip fab. Logic goes into CAD, gets simulated, an order is placed and soon mask (factory "programmed" if you will...) ASIC get delivered.
Your posts suggest you don't even understand the technology of the chips you "designed" or rather implemented a design for. For one you call the chips custom. What an oversimplification... If you paid attention in your reveal thread you'd know they're semi-custom. Two you say the chips were "produced" in 1987. What? That's Fujitsu's copyright to protect their layout and mask work, it has nothing to do with SNK or the Neo Geo. The logic (mask) specifically for SNK was produced between 1987 and the chips manufacture codes. These chips have so little logic that they fit into older, inexpensive gate arrays, which brings me to:
2) Neo Geo wasn't nearly "state-of-the-art". You're blundering technology again. It was designed in discrete logic! It was very cleverly conceived, that's it. State of the art in the late 80s would be 64-bit RISC chips--orders of magnitude more complex. You should know that.
3) Timestamps (someone of your stature should know the word for this) can easily be changed, and die shots altogether are irrelevant to the preposterous claims. Your "proof" of the ZMC2 die shot--the 1990 modified date, is suspect alone because it's around the Neo's launch--predating the ZMC/ZMC2 introduction by almost 2 years. It took 2 years to introduce these trivial chips, that you just so happen to be obsessed with?
[I refreshed my memory of the reveal thread a little, so what now, "power spikes" (wtf?) held the ZMC2 back, when SNK could have been saving money by integrating it from the beginning? Or maybe the "internal issues" you mentioned in the reveal thread--something virtually impossible by design?]
4) Again, SNK probably never staffed chip (LSI) designers because for their purposes gate arrays were more economical and quicker to market. Even the HNG64 probably uses gate arrays, and if not they would contract out the work. To say "SNK didn’t develop this level of microchips in the USA offices" is retarded, since of course the US office didn't design any microchips (who says "microchips"?), and most likely neither did SNK (Japan) technically. If you're talking about designing the logic (how can any professional continue to confuse the two?), it's actually well documented who designed the core logic of the Neo Geo. The later peripheral chips like the ZMC, ZMC2, PCM, conveniently for you, not so much. But they're certainly designed by SNK (Japan).
5) You worked with NEC and Fujitsu, in Japan, on the chips now... You know they had US offices to work on customer orders right? Then as a customer on behalf of SNK you made such an impression on NEC that they decided to hire you? Doing what, Japanese mail room? You've never made a single post that suggests you understand semiconductor physics, and I remember a few basics-fumbling ones that suggest the contrary.
Just give it up already. You're some kind of hands-on, no-theory, technician--not a software-turned-hardware engineer with any background in digital design, much less a physicist--the people hired for chip work. Let's get real, you struggle with English as much as the technical aspects of your posts. If any of what you say is true, you would hold the distinction of being the world's most incompetent chip professional. It doesn't even take another professional to see this.