• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Chip Makers Gang Up for Advanced Processes

    January 7, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    Progressively shrinking the circuitry on chips has provided the world with an enormous improvement in computing power every year, but silicon-based circuits seem to be coming up against the limits of physics. That means no single vendor–with the current exception of Intel with its X64 monopoly–can rely on its own financial position to keep investing in ever-more-clever technologies to make faster chips. So most of the major players are ganging up to collaboratively come up with new chip-making processes.

    In December, Japanese electronics maker Toshiba said that it would join an alliance of chip and electronic equipment suppliers put together by IBM to work the kinks out of future 32 nanometer chip making techniques based on high-k/metal gate processes that IBM announced early in 2007. Working with Advanced Micro Devices, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Freescale Semiconductor (the old chip unit of Motorola), Infineon Technologies (the spinout from Siemens), and Samsung Electronics, and Sony, IBM has tweaked the breakthrough high-k/metal gate process it announced a year ago so it can actually get chips based on a 32 nanometer variant of this process, mixed with its existing silicon on insulator (SOI) processes, into the factories by the second half of 2009. IBM and AMD have said previously that they expect to deploy 45 nanometer techniques based on immersion lithography (putting silicon wafers under water to etch them) and ultra-low-K dielectric (which uses air pockets to insulate wires on the chip) into the field by the middle of this year in their chips.

    Intel started shipping its first 45 nanometer chips, the “Penryn” Xeons, back in early November 2007, and obviously has a tremendous lead on the IBM alliance. If the IBM alliance can deploy 32 nanometer techniques by the second half of 2009, as the December announcement that brought Toshiba into the fold suggests, then the IBM team could get in synch with Intel. Intel demonstrated prototype 32 nanometer chips at its Developer Forum in September 2007, and has said that it will get the process into its factories and deploy chips using it sometime in 2009. Like the IBM team, Intel was prototyping a second generation high-k and metal gate transistor technology.

    In a related announcement, IBM also said that Chinese chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International would license its 45 nanometer chip processes to help it make chips and chipsets for cell phones as well as graphics chips for video cards. SMIC operates two 300mm wafer chip making plants that can deploy the 45 nanometer processes, one in Beijing and the other in Shanghai.

    RELATED STORIES

    Intel Announces First “Penryn” Xeon Processors

    IDF Server Wrap Up: Intel to Keep the Pressure on AMD

    Intel Details Future 45 Nanometer Chip Plans from Beijing

    Intel Shows Off Future Penryn and Nehalem Chip Designs

    Will 45 Nanometer Chips Make Two Warring Camps?

    IBM, AMD Expect 45-Nanometer Chips in Mid-2008

    Intel Previews Quad-Core Chips, Talks Up Massively Cored RISC

    The Balance of Server Powers

    IBM Research Pushes Chip Tech Down Below 30 Nanometers



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 17, Number 1 -- January 7, 2008

    Sponsored by
    WorksRight Software

    Do you need area code information?
    Do you need ZIP Code information?
    Do you need ZIP+4 information?
    Do you need city name information?
    Do you need county information?
    Do you need a nearest dealer locator system?

    We can HELP! We have affordable AS/400 software and data to do all of the above. Whether you need a simple city name retrieval system or a sophisticated CASS postal coding system, we have it for you!

    The ZIP/CITY system is based on 5-digit ZIP Codes. You can retrieve city names, state names, county names, area codes, time zones, latitude, longitude, and more just by knowing the ZIP Code. We supply information on all the latest area code changes. A nearest dealer locator function is also included. ZIP/CITY includes software, data, monthly updates, and unlimited support. The cost is $495 per year.

    PER/ZIP4 is a sophisticated CASS certified postal coding system for assigning ZIP Codes, ZIP+4, carrier route, and delivery point codes. PER/ZIP4 also provides county names and FIPS codes. PER/ZIP4 can be used interactively, in batch, and with callable programs. PER/ZIP4 includes software, data, monthly updates, and unlimited support. The cost is $3,900 for the first year, and $1,950 for renewal.

    Just call us and we’ll arrange for 30 days FREE use of either ZIP/CITY or PER/ZIP4.

    WorksRight Software, Inc.
    Phone: 601-856-8337
    Fax: 601-856-9432
    Email: software@worksright.com
    Website: www.worksright.com

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Admin Alert: Getting Started with Trial Capacity on Demand, Part 2 Vision Seeks to Simplify HA Options with ‘Hybrid’ Solutions

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 17 Issue: 1

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • A New Year, A New IBM Systems and Technology Group
    • Rocket Software Buys NetManage for $69 Million
    • Servers Get Their First Power and Performance Benchmark
    • Mad Dog 21/21: Motherboarding
    • IDC 2008: It’s Post Disruption, the Aftermath of Webification
    • Q&A with Marc Dupaquier, Former GM of IBM Business Systems
    • Software AG Buys Jacada’s Legacy App Modernization Biz
    • Chip Makers Gang Up for Advanced Processes
    • Bsafe and Satyam Partner for System i and z Security
    • IT Action Heroes Replace Chaos With Calm

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • Security Still Top Concern, IBM i Marketplace Study Says
    • Bob Langieri Shares IBM i Career Trends Outlook for 2023
    • Kisco Brings Native SMS Messaging to IBM i
    • Four Hundred Monitor, February 1
    • 2023 IBM i Predictions, Part 4
    • Power Systems Did Indeed Grow Revenues Last Year
    • The IBM Power Trap: Three Mistakes That Leave You Stuck
    • Big Blue Decrees Its 2023 IBM Champions
    • As I See It: The Good, the Bad, And The Mistaken
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 5

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2022 IT Jungle

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.