Chipmakers Advance Transistor Technology (24%)

Internet.com ^ | December 13, 2004 | ichael Singer

[aimhigh]

IBM (Quote, Chart) and AMD (Quote, Chart) have devised a new silicon transistor technology they claim will boost the speeds of single- and dual-core chips.

(excerpts)
The process, known as "Dual Stress Liner," uses IBM and AMD's jointly developed strained silicon technology and could increase transistor speed as much as 24 percent without using any additional power, the two companies said. IBM and AMD said the technique works without the help of additional new processes, which may be welcome news for chipmakers struggling to boost chip speeds without overheating computer systems.

"Innovation has surpassed scaling as the primary driver of semiconductor technology performance improvements," Lisa Su, IBM's vice president of technology development and alliances, said in a statement.

The "Dual Stress Liner," process works on both types of semiconductor transistors, called n-channel and p-channel transistors, by stretching silicon atoms in one transistor and compressing them in the other.

AMD said it will gradually phase in the new transistor know-how for its next generation chips starting with its 90-nanometer Opteron processors.

The partnership also follows IBM's announcement this month that it has increased the performance of silicon germanium technology to improve the speed and capacity of its transistors.

Details of the AMD-IBM Dual Stress Liner innovation will be disclosed this week at the 2004 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Faster...Faster...

then I'll need a faster broadband link.....

[RadioAstronomer]

strained silicon technology

The current 90 nanometer Intel Prescott CPU uses this technology. :-)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The process makes AMD and IBM the first companies to combine strained silicon with silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology to enhance the way a transistor works.

This statement led me to believe this was something new......

[RadioAstronomer]

Look here: :-)

http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q1/p4-prescott/index.x?pg=1

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks.....those guys do an outstanding report......

I need to look at the AMD64 3400+ .... performance looks really good and it could plug righ into my 754 socket.... , Newegg is offering them for $220.00...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Maybe the difference is the SOI....different process or ingredients or something....

It's all black magic to me....

[RadioAstronomer]

I have some SOS (Silicon-on-Sapphire) wafers, but I don't have any SOI except for some of my microwave stuff.

You probably are correct. Adding the strained silicon with SOI may be what is new. :-)

[RadioAstronomer]

from here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_on_sapphire

Silicon on sapphire (SOS) is a hetero-epitaxial process that consists of a thin layer of silicon grown on a sapphire (Al2O3) wafer. SOS is part of the Silicon on Insulator (SOI) family of CMOS technologies. SOS is primarily used in military and space applications because of its inherent resistance to radiation. SOS has seen little commercial use to date because of difficulties in fabricating the very small transistors used in modern high-density applications. This drawback is because the SOS process results in the formation of dislocations from crystal lattice disparities between the sapphire and silicon.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

SOS is primarily used in military and space applications because of its inherent resistance to radiation.

Hmmm....guess I'll talk to my son, he was telling me about a gate array ( whatever that is) that has a powerPC processer on the chip .... goes into a high velocity weapon control mechanism....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Hmmmmm.....

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Today's featured article

Dr. Noam Chomsky is an Institute Professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and creator of the Chomsky hierarchy, a classification of formal languages. His works in generative linguistics contributed significantly to the decline of behaviorism and led to the advancement of the cognitive sciences. Outside of his linguistic work, Chomsky is also widely known for his radical left-wing political views, and his criticism of the foreign policy of the United States government. Chomsky describes himself as a libertarian socialist and a supporter of anarcho-syndicalism.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Well looky here:

Slashdot....Strained Silicon to Perpetuate Moore's law

Maybe someone will explain.....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Here we go....some real detail on the difference between the IBM , and the Intel process:

IBM, AMD, Sony boost chip speeds by 24%

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HOT gets hotter

Building on IBM's Strained Silicon Directly on Insulator (SSDOI) technology, DSL likewise uses Germanium to stretch the silicon lattice then removes it before actual chip production takes place, ensuring that its fabrication process doesn't need to be modified to take into account the properties of the straining material. That contrasts with Intel's strained silicon system, in which the Germanium atoms are retained in the chip. It also makes Intel's approach more expensive to do than IBM's.