AMD

IBM and its joint development partners -- AMD, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd, Freescale, Infineon and Samsung -- announced an innovative approach to speed the implementation of a breakthrough material known as "high-k/metal gate" in next generation 32nm computer chips.

This new approach, an industry first based on what engineers call a 'high-k gate-first', process, is designed to provide a simpler, less time consuming way for clients to migrate to high-k metal gate technology in order to secure benefits that include improved performance and reduced power consumption.

Chips using the new technique will support a range of applications -- from low-power computer microchips targeted at wireless and other consumer-oriented devices to high-performance microprocessors for games and enterprise computing. This new approach to implementing high-k/metal gate will be available to IBM alliance members and their clients in the second half of 2009.

On January 29, 2007, IBM and its research partners (including Sony and Toshiba) introduced the "high-k/metal gate” innovation as the basis for a long-sought improvement to the transistor -– the tiny on/off switch that serves as the basic building block of virtually all microchips made today. Using the high-k/metal gate material in a critical portion of the transistor that controls its primary on/off switching function enabled the development of 32nm chip circuitry that is designed to be smaller, faster, and more power-efficient than previously thought possible.

Using high-k/metal gate IBM and its Alliance Partners have been able to successfully shrink the size of a chip by up to 50 percent as compared to the previous technology generation while improving a number of other performance specifications. For example, high-k metal gate chips save about 45 percent total power, an increasingly critical metric in all electronics applications.

Together these improvements will help to increase functionality and performance with lower power consumption and improved battery life in mobile devices. For microprocessor applications, this innovation also enables up to 30 percent higher performance as documented in measurements performed by IBM and its Alliance Partners at IBM’s East Fishkill, NY semiconductor manufacturing facility

"IBM’s alliances have demonstrated the "high-k gate-first" approach in a manufacturing environment, an achievement that provides clients with a simple, scalable pathway to incorporating the high k material innovation in semiconductor development without introducing additional design complexity," said Gary Patton, vice president, IBM's Semiconductor R&D Center on behalf of IBM's technology alliances. "This industry leading development comes from leveraging the collective engineering talent and breadth of market experience across the six Alliance Partner companies, as well as world class R&D facilities such as UAlbany NanoCollege’s Albany NanoTech complex, in order to maintain an aggressive road map.”

IBM and its Alliance Partners have developed low-power foundry Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology using the 'high-k gate-first' approach and have demonstrated the first 32nm ultra dense static random access memory (SRAM) in this low power technology with cell sizes below 0.15um2.

SRAMs are a key building block of computer chip designs and an excellent indicator of the readiness of a technology. The unique characteristics of the high-k material reduces total chip power consumption by as much as a 45 percent compared to the previous generation, a critical technology factor for achieving longer battery life in hand held devices such as cell phones, pagers, and PDAs.

In addition, IBM and its Alliance Partners have incorporated the high-k innovation into a new generation of high performance Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) technology at 32nm. The unique high-k material properties enable a transistor speed improvement of greater than 30 percent over the previous generation of high performance Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) technology.

The SRAM demonstrated in this new generation of high performance technology functions at a lower voltage -- an improvement that reduces the energy consumption for microprocessor applications. The use of SOI provides a significant performance and power benefit, which, in combination with the high-k/metal gate advancement, will help the technology deliver energy efficient chips used in applications such as games, personal computers, and high end computing systems.

The announcement marks the latest development achievement from this alliance of semiconductor manufacturing, development and technology companies that collaborate to address the product design and advanced process development challenges central to producing a smaller, faster, more cost efficient generation of semiconductors.

Competition over average selling prices of chips has eased; now Intel and AMD battle on microprocessor features and functionality instead
Pinched by microprocessor price wars, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are trying to move away from competing over prices, to competing on microprocessor features and functionality instead, according to a study released by iSuppli.

Though Intel has a sizeable lead over AMD in global microprocessor revenue market, both companies recently noted that competition over average selling prices of chips has eased, which could signify the beginning of the end for the x86 microprocessor pricing war, iSuppli said in a statement.

Intel Corp on Thursday introduced high-end processors for computer servers to compete with an upcoming new product from Advanced Micro Devices Inc

Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, said the six new Quad-Core Xeon 7300 series processors can deliver more than twice the performance and more than three times the performance per watt over its previous-generation dual-core products.

AMD is also preparing to launch a new processor, code-named Barcelona, next week. Like Intel's new line, Barcelona features four processing engines on one piece of silicon.

The first product since AMD's much talked about, $5.4 billion ATI acquisition last year, has been unveiled.

At an event in San Francisco yesterday, AMD announced its new 690 chipset, calling it the company's first hardware platform to feature an ATI graphics processor integrated into its chipset for Athlon 64 processors.

The AMD 690 chipset incorporates an ATI Radeon X1250 graphics processor to enable demanding graphics in Vista's Aero UI (user interface) like 3D application switching.

Hello ITVidya Members,

AMD launches a new Energy Efficient Processor in order to save the energy consumption.

AMD has introduced new desktop processors designed for users seeking the ultimate in energy-conscious high-performance computing.

The new energy-efficient processors include 45-watt Athlon 64 single-core processors 3500+ and 3800+, and the Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor 6000+.

AMD has launched the "Quad FX Platform" with Dual Socket Direct Connect (DSDC) Architecture.

Regarded as the supreme platform for mega-tasking enthusiasts by AMD, Quad FX Platform is the first dual-socket, multi-core desktop PC platform designed to take advantage of the latest enhancements in Windows Vista Ultimate.

The new platform is powered by pairs of AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 series dual-core processors, which is the newest addition to the award-winning AMD Athlon 64 FX processor lineup. These processors will help users make the most of their overall computing experience, while gaming, editing audio/video, and streaming high-definition content.

DSDC Architecture enables high-bandwidth communication between matched pairs of AMD Athlon 64 FX-70, AMD Athlon 64 FX-72, and AMD Athlon 64 FX-74 dual-core processors. Enthusiasts can benefit from having twice the number of processor cores due to a dual-socket configuration.

According to AMD, the Quad FX Platform has been designed to meet the enhanced PC experiences made possible by Microsoft Windows Vista, and also for the software industry that is moving towards multi-threading environment that involves running multiple, demanding applications and multi-threaded games.

Apart from the Dual Socket Direct Connect Architecture, the platform also has support for a seamless upgrade path to a total of eight processing cores with planned AMD native quad-core processors in 2007.

With AMD64 technology and Dual Socket Direct Connect Architecture, the new AMD Quad FX Platform offers scaleable performance enhancements on a personal workstation powered by AMD Athlon 64 FX processors. It is designed with next-gen platform innovations such as high-performance, low-latency unbuffered DDR2 memory and for Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) support with compatible operating systems.

In addition, Nvidia is the chipset and multi-GPU launch partner for the Quad FX platform. The GeForce 8 series of graphics processing units and the nForce 680a media and communications processor have been used in the new platform, which will help deliver an ideal solution for mega-tasking enthusiasts.

The AMD Quad FX Platform promises to offer enthusiasts absolute performance, flexibility, and customization by including features like twelve SATA controllers designed to enable up to nine terabytes of storage using currently available drive technologies (for over 450 high-definition movies), and increased spacing between PCI-E slots to accommodate up to four high-performance graphics cards.

AMD claims infinite options with the new platform to tweak the custom systems, including the ability to drive four or even eight monitors at the same time when using up to four PCI-E graphics cards.

The new AMD Athlon 64 FX-70, FX-72, and FX-74 dual-core processors will be available in pairs at a price of $599 (Rs 26,764); $799 (Rs 35,699); and $999 (Rs 44,635) respectively for PIB (Processor in Box).

AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 series dual-core processors are expected to be available world-wide by early 2007.

Advanced Micro Devices has pulled the plug on its Personal Internet Communicator, once envisioned as a low-cost computer for the developing world.

The PIC was introduced in 2004 as part of AMD's 50x15 project, in which the company has pledged to help bring Internet access to half the world's population by 2015. The device cost $185 and came with one of AMD's Geode processors.

AMD's silicon design team will use the new systems for electronic design automation applications

AMD has purchased several HP BladeSystem c-Class server blades powered by AMD Opteron processors to support the development of its chip designs, HP said today.

AMD’s silicon design team will use the new systems for electronic design automation applications.

“HP’s Linux-based BladeSystem solution’s integrated consoles and power control help us to manage more servers without increasing our staff,” said Mike Lowe, director, Chipset Engineering, AMD in a statement.