The results of the most recent SOI Consortium benchmarking study detail the interest of planar FD-SOI as early as the 28nm and 20nm technology nodes, in terms of performance, power and manufacturability. This 3-part blog series looks further at some of the implications. Chipmakers constantly have to manage risk.  Generally it is sensible not to …

Excellent news:  the first chips produced at GlobalFoundries’ “Fab 8″ in upstate New York are based on IBM’s latest, 32nm SOI chip technology. In a joint press release, the two companies announced that the chips will be used by customers in networking, gaming and graphics. While the new chips began initial production at IBM’s 300mm …

What are you going to do with your SOCs at 20/22nm? The options seem to boil down to just staying on bulk CMOS, or changing to FinFETs or planar, fully-depleted (FD) SOI-based CMOS. Though some may find comfort in staying on bulk CMOS, it’s getting very complicated – and complicated get expensive fast. The FinFET …

Overclocked to 8.429 GHz , the AMDFX (Bulldozer) CPU has entered the Guinness World Book of Records for “Highest Frequency of a Computer Processor”. On 32nm SOI from GlobalFoundries, the 8-core FX will launch in Q4 2011, targeting gamers.

Calling it “a monumental moment for the industry”, AMD has begun revenue shipments of its new  32nm-SOI  “Interlagos” processors, the first CPUs based on the “Bulldozer” architecture. Fabbed by GlobalFoundries, “Interlagos” is the codename for AMD’s 12- or 16-core 32nm SOI server processor based on the new “Bulldozer” processor core.  It carries the AMD Opteron™ …

One of the key projects currently underway within the SOI Consortium is to understand and provide guidance on the advantages and obstacles of porting SoC designs from Bulk to FD-SOI. This project represents a strategic opportunity to help drive the profile of FD SOI and participate in the emergence of this important technology. Objective: Analyze …

Deeply scaled PD- and FD-SOI require new approaches to ESD protection.  Recent work from Stanford and GlobalFoundries on gate controlled FEDs shows great promise. Technology scaling unfavorably affects the electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection of integrated circuits mainly by reducing MOSFET oxide and junction breakdown voltage, diode current shunting capability, and by increasing the interconnect resistivity. …

Up to 80% additional performance improvement on an ARM Cortex M0. 40% lower power for SRAMs. These are the amazing planar FD-SOI results just announced by the SOI Consortium.  Things are suddenly looking much brighter in the world of low-power, high-performance chips for mobile and consumer apps. An A-list of companies collaborated on this assessment/characterization …

Construction on GlobalFoundries’ Fab 2 in Saratoga County, New York, gets underway this summer, with full-scale manufacturing slated for 2012.

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