AMD to start 45nm ramp in H1 2008

[flopper]

so AMD "is" screwed then.
Until they get a better technology out to make transistors work as they want them to.
Can they survive that long?

[JumpingJack]

so AMD "is" screwed then.
Until they get a better technology out to make transistors work as they want them to.
Can they survive that long?

Yeah, sorta ... it get's worse. For barcelona, AMD thickened up the gate oxide because of leakage problems (by about 25&#37, what this does is ruins the transistor switching speed.

This is harder to prove -- http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.j...leID=202100946

AMD's brisbane/65 nm process had exactly the same gate oxide thickness as Intel's -- see (unlinkable) IEDM 2005 proceedings, AMD's 65 nm process paper (sorry, need to use a library for that one )...

So by thickening it up, they are trying to bring down gate leakage, but it is not going well by the looks of it.... Phenom at 2.4 Ghz is 125 Watts TDP... ouch. (BTW, you can email J. Boyd -- email in the article and ask if they thickened up, he will respond kindly as he did me )

[Shadowmage]

Yeah, sorta ... it get's worse. For barcelona, AMD thickened up the gate oxide because of leakage problems (by about 25%), what this does is ruins the transistor switching speed.

This is harder to prove -- http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.j...leID=202100946

AMD's brisbane/65 nm process had exactly the same gate oxide thickness as Intel's -- see (unlinkable) IEDM 2005 proceedings, AMD's 65 nm process paper (sorry, need to use a library for that one )...

So by thickening it up, they are trying to bring down gate leakage, but it is not going well by the looks of it.... Phenom at 2.4 Ghz is 125 Watts TDP... ouch. (BTW, you can email J. Boyd -- email in the article and ask if they thickened up, he will respond kindly as he did me )

It's true they have a thicker gate oxide, but their V_t is also much lower to compensate, according to the article.

[JumpingJack]

It's true they have a thicker gate oxide, but their V_t is also much lower to compensate, according to the article.

It is all relative, he did not quote a number in the article.... and while Vt is a critical transistor parameter related to performance, saturated drive currents are also a factor (the generally track each other but not necessarily).

Honestly, I cannot comment on absolutes of AMD's process because any published process data is now 2 yrs old, and it has changed a lot by now....

This is why I generalized, thickening up the gate is generally poorer for performance... and as Boyd said, AMD was looking for other ways... finding a way to lower Vt certainly could be one of them, but how much lower they would need to make get Vt to make up the difference is not clear to me.