The authors discuss the advantages of semistandard VLSI, which lets a designer choose the chip for its standard features and then have the expert chip maker add special characteristics. They compare them with two other kinds of application-specific IC (ASIC), custom and semicustom VLSI chips. They describe four different ways to utilize semistandard chips and the benefit and drawbacks of each. They conclude by discussing what to expect from the semistandard approach. >