IBM, Partners Offer Customers Latest 32-Nano Chip Technology

[Dashken]

An IBM (NYSE: IBM)-led alliance on Monday said customers now have the option of designing into future products the group's jointly developed 32-nanometer chips, which are expected to be more power efficient than current-generation microprocessors.

The latest processors use transistors built with a new material known as "high-k/metal gate," which makes it possible to shrink the size of transistors to 32 nanometers. The latest chips today use 45-nanometer transistors. By reducing the size further, chipmakers can get more of the devices on a piece of silicon, which translates into greater power efficiency.

IBM has manufactured chips using high-k/metal gate at its 300-millimeter semiconductor fabrication facility in East Fishkill, N.Y. IBM partners in the initiative include Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Freescale, Infineon Technologies, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, and Toshiba. Intel is not part of the alliance, but the chipmaker is developing its own chips using similar materials.

The IBM alliance plans to make prototypes of the 32-nanometer chips available starting in the third quarter. Feasibility tests of high-k/metal gate technology conducted at the Albany, N.Y., NanoTech Complex of the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering show that the material can eventually be extended to 22-nanometer processors.

"This early design and modeling work indicates that the high-k/metal gate technology is going to deliver a significant product and performance differentiation," Dirk Wrister, director of process technology at Freescale, said in a statement. "These early results are a significant step in the demonstration of high k/metal gate viability in 32-nm technology."

Transistors are the tiny on/off switches that serve as the basic building block of virtually all microchips made today. The new 32-nanometer processors have up to 35% better performance than 45-nanometer chips at the same operating voltage, IBM said. The power reduction in the 32-nanometer processors can run from as much as 30% to 50%, depending on the operating voltage.

The next-generation processors using high-k/metal gate are expected to be used in devices ranging from low-power computer microchips aimed at wireless and other consumer devices to high-performance microprocessors for games and enterprise computing. IBM is likely to adopt the technology in its next-generation Power chips used in high-end servers.

High-k/metal gate is a proprietary material based on the chemical element hafnium. The material makes it possible for chipmakers to design products that follow the same manufacturing process flow used in building current chips. Keeping the manufacturing steps the same means fewer expensive modifications in fabrication plants.

Intel (NSDQ: INTC) is building 32-nanometer chips that it's scheduled to deliver around the same 2009 timeframe as IBM and its partners. Companies using the IBM-led technology include Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices.

Source: IBM, Partners Offer Customers Latest 32-Nano Chip Technology -- Semiconductors -- InformationWeek

[ChampionLLY]

good to see that there are more competitors around

[Adrian Wong]

Hmm.. This is an important step for the "Opposition", so to speak. Without a good fabrication technology, it will be hard for AMD and the likes to challenge Intel's current dominance.

[Mac Daddy]

I was thinking along similar lines Adrian with the Phenom snags 2009 isn't really that far away for a newer manufacturing generation is it ?

[Adrian Wong]

Hopefully, it will give them improved yields and lower costs. Otherwise, it will be hard for them to really compete.