Tape-out vs Tape-in

Tape-out is the final phase of a design life cycle for a IC design (ASIC/SOC) before the manufacturing starts. (And the same for a PCB design before it is manufactured)

This is the phase when the final database that contains the design information is sent to a foundry to begin the manufacturing process. The data base will be in GDSII format.

The term tape-out was named so because historically a magnetic tape was used to store all the ASIC design files and this tape was then send to the foundry for manufacturing.

A tape-in is a relatively newer terminology used by certain companies that are involved in bigger SOC (System on Chip) designs that involves integration of several IPs.

Some of these organizations will have different groups (and even business units) that work on different IP designs and these are then integrated to a top level SOC design which is finally taped out for manufacturing. When each of the IP groups are ready with their final data base, they tape-in their data base to the top level design team which finally makes a tape-out of full design database to the foundry