IBM/GlobalFoundries Begin Development of 28nm Tech

[WiCKeD]

Although not due until the second half of next year, former AMD spinoff GlobalFoundries is finally making inroads into the technology gap between rival intel. 32nm designs from both companies are set to be released by the end of this year.

IBM AND ITS "technology alliance" have announced they'll be moving to 28nm process technology, perfect for small, low-powered, consumer devices and delivering a swift sharp kick to Intel's shins.

IBM, along with the additional fab five, Chartered Semiconductor, GlobalFoundries (sic), Infineon Technologies, Samsung Electronics and ST Microelectronics will apparently be jointly developing the 28nm, high-k metal gate (HKMG) tech, extending an existing development agreement between the six.

The new tech is touted as being capable of providing a 40 per cent performance boost and a 20 per cent reduction in power guzzlage on a chip half the size of those made using current 45nm process.

IBM and co. are also lauding the tech's power-performance and time-to-market advantages, as well as the ‘hardly-leaky-at-all' HKMG technology, good for bumped-up battery life.

The move is especially significant to AMD spinoff, GlobalFoundries, which is busy floundering around for new third-party customers to chip away for.

Full Article @ The Inquirer

[jesussaves]

Nothing is better then competition. Maybe intel will have to put their money to work

[krone6]

Nice. i like amd cause they're cheaper then intel but i really don't mind who's cpu i put in. but i hope amd becomes the new intel. i heard they were better then intel years ago so let's see if they can become what they were back then again.

[afrakes]

Nice, the GF spinoff is probably the only way AMD could have hoped to compete with the resources Intel has available. Hopefully it ends up working out for them. I've always been a bit of an AMD fanboy and think the competition they provide for Intel is extremely important in this industry.

[Mizzou]

Pretty amazing how quickly things have progressed, really didn't think 28nm would come so soon. Will also be interesting to see what develops on the manufactured diamond front, looks like progress is being made and one day this may actually replace silicon ... maybe not for a while but it's coming.

[Andromeda]

Here is hoping that AMD keeps running I like choices and cheap prices

[levathar]

This is great! Right now my major interest in processor tech fab research is power consumption reduction as I like to keep my rigs 24/7 for my science crunching purposes!

[redroses]

I fully agree with everyone. It was an excellent post. Thank you.
simulation credit immobilier

[kleinteich2]

not to be a upset or anything but isnt 28nm Halfnode?? i thought the next step from 32nm would be 22nm?? example.. 90nm,65nm,45nm,32nm,22nm..← FullNodes

[Moraa]

The move will be a slap in the face to Intel, whose CEO, Paul Otellini, said Tuesday Chipzilla would accelerate the release of its 32nm "Westmere" to sometime later this year.

Gotta love competition

[Deluded]

Originally Posted by Mizzou

Pretty amazing how quickly things have progressed, really didn't think 28nm would come so soon. Will also be interesting to see what develops on the manufactured diamond front, looks like progress is being made and one day this may actually replace silicon ... maybe not for a while but it's coming.

If that ever becomes true, then we may see a huge spike in price. Diamond is not cheap, afterall.

[xdownsetx]

We can make synthetic Diamonds now and they're not that expensive to produce.

[levathar]

Originally Posted by xdownsetx

We can make synthetic Diamonds now and they're not that expensive to produce.

Can anyone post a link about it? I'd like to know more about it. Thank you.

[Deluded]

Not that expensive to produce, very expensive to buy.

[onewecallgod]

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

If we can get these in a Dremel cutting disk, then yes, they have to be cheap.

[Yahooy2U]

Originally Posted by kleinteich2

not to be a upset or anything but isnt 28nm Halfnode?? i thought the next step from 32nm would be 22nm?? example.. 90nm,65nm,45nm,32nm,22nm..← FullNodes

You're correct, 28nm is a half-node. The idea is that the knowledge being gained in 22nm work is applied to the 32nm node, so while 22nm hasn't been perfected yet, we can still improve upon 32nm. (yes "we" is correct, I work there )

[kleinteich2]

Originally Posted by Yahooy2U

You're correct, 28nm is a half-node. The idea is that the knowledge being gained in 22nm work is applied to the 32nm node, so while 22nm hasn't been perfected yet, we can still improve upon 32nm. (yes "we" is correct, I work there )

thats what i thought.. i just wasnt sure.. isnt there big drawbacks of designing a halfnode Process??

[Yahooy2U]

Originally Posted by kleinteich2

thats what i thought.. i just wasnt sure.. isnt there big drawbacks of designing a halfnode Process??

The main drawback is that it has the potential to delay 22nm as resources are shifted from one technology to the other, but the goal is to deliver both on-time

[Fr0sty]

Originally Posted by Yahooy2U

The main drawback is that it has the potential to delay 22nm as resources are shifted from one technology to the other, but the goal is to deliver both on-time

but isnt an half node easier to produce than a full new process like from 32nm to 22nm ???? or its easier to do these half node to lower tdp while having bigger yield and since the fab process is shrinked smaller transistor can be packed so the total ammount improved etc...


btw these things interest me

[levathar]

AFAK the smaller the process, the harder it is to produce.
Changing from full node pattern to half node I believe that can be a technological problem, because most manufactures point into developing a full node process.
I don't know if in the past there were half node moves.

EDIT: Hey, intel will release 32nm chips in 6 months (read 6 core 32nm intel chips in the news), so you better hurry with those fab processes!
HURRY!!! ;!