Posted on Friday, December 14 2007 @ 3:05 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
AMD announced it will start to ramp production of 45nm processors in the first half of 2008,
EE Times reports. However, the firm says they aren't in a race with Intel:
In an interview Tuesday (Dec. 11) during the International Electron Device Meeting here, John Pellerin, AMD's director of logic technology development and project leader on a joint development effort with IBM Corp., said the company expects to start shipping the new processors in the second half of 2008.
While ramping 45-nm production early next year, AMD said that it will retain the option to include high-k/ metal gates in that generation, and will include high-k/metal gate technology in its 32-nm production generation.
Intel rolled out 45-nm high-k chips in November. Pellerin said AMD is focusing more on customer applications for its high-k chips rather than the process technology race. "We're not selling process technology," he stressed.
AMD's 45-nm technology has been transferred to its Fab 36 in Dresden, Germany. The process incorporates its "strain engineering" technology advances. AMD also helped drive immersion lithography for 45-nm, Pellerin claimed. "We're comfortable with the maturity of our yields" he added.
Pellerin leads a team of about 70 engineers in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., that is pushing AMD's high-k dielectric development for 45- and 32-nm processors. AMD recent extended its high-k chip development agreement with IBM through 2011 with a heavier emphasis on R&D. The chip maker is working more closely with IBM's Yorktown Heights, N.Y., research staff, he said.
