Tapeout
Once a chip design is complete, it is taped out for manufacturing. This means sending the GDS2 files to the foundry.
The term “tape out” was coined in 70’s. Historically, the ASIC design files were stored on magnetic tape. The event of carrying out the tape to the foundry was thus called “tape out”.
References:
- CMOS/VLSI design by Weste & Harris.
- https://anysilicon.com/semipedia/tape/