Overview: IBM's SOI new breakthrough for Power PC chips

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Comments: Tak, tu je original SOI technologie. Strucne a kratce: 35% vyssi rychlost a 1/3 spotreby stejneho typu procesoru.



Overview: IBM's SOI new breakthrough for Power PC chips
 by Dennis Sellers
 dsellers@maccentral.com
 August 3, 11:45 a.m. ET
 http://www.maccentral.com/news/9808/03.ppc.shtml
 
 You almost need a roadmap to follow the PowerPC developments. AltiVec, copper wiring, G3s, G4s, and now, SOI (see our feature story at http://www.maccentral.com/news/9807/30.ppc.shtml). Yep, today IBM unveiled what's being heralded as a breakthrough in a process to build high-speed transistors that can boost the performance of computers and communications gear by up to 35%. It promises big things for the PowerPC chip.
 
 The new technology is called "silicon-on-insulator" (SOI), and can be used to create higher performance microchips for big computer systems such as servers and mainframes, and more power-efficient chips for battery-operated hand-held devices, such as cell phones.
 
 IBM says, after much work, it's perfected a process for building high-speed transistors that represents a fundamental advance in the way chips are built. The company says its unique SOI process protects the millions of tiny transistors on a chip with a "blanket" of insulation, reducing harmful electrical effects that sap energy and hinder performance. (The following information is taken from IBM's SOI information at http://www.ibm.com/News/1998/08/03.phtml.)
 
 With SOI, a microprocessor designed to operate at 400 MHz can instead be built using SOI and can achieve speeds of over 500 MHz. Information on IBM's Web site says that, at the same time, if performance levels are held constant, SOI chips can require as little as one-third the power of today's microchips.
 
 IBM's new silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process can build a range of more powerful microchips, such as this PowerPC chip shown with antique glass insulators once used on power transmission poles.
 
 This is an important development, since reducing the power necessary to operate chip circuitry can significantly extend the battery life of portable devices, such as cell phones, mobile computers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs). IBM believes the low-power aspects of SOI technology will be key to the creation of multifunction, hand-held "information appliances" of the future.
 
 All chips are basically made up of two key elements: transistors and "wires." The semiconductor industry has been grappling with ways to improve both since the invention of the integrated circuit nearly 40 years ago. An earlier IBM breakthrough improved wire design by allowing copper (a better conductor of electricity) to be substituted for aluminum. IBM is today shipping the first chips based on that copper process, less than a year after the technology was introduced.
 
 Now, IBM's unique SOI process alters the design of transistors, essentially "turbo charging" them so they run faster and use less power. IBM's innovative approach allows SOI to be used in mainstream semiconductor manufacturing with few changes or additions to existing fabrication lines and at little additional cost.
 
 IBM is already producing SOI-based chips in its East Fishkill, NY, pilot production line and will introduce the technology on its high-volume Burlington, VT, manufacturing lines in the first half of 1999. IBM plans to incorporate SOI technology into a wide range of semiconductors, including the PowerPC microprocessor.
 
 An EE Times article, says, "by signaling that it is ready to apply SOI technology to volume manufacturing, IBM has set the stage for yet another epic shift in the semiconductor industry, less than eight months after saying it had reached a similar confidence level with copper interconnects."
 
 The article says that by applying copper, SOI and low-k interlevel-metal dielectrics to the gigahertz processor design, IBM expects to be able to push commercial processor speeds to the gigahertz range in two to three years-faster than competitors such as Intel Corp. And, according to EE Times, because SOI shines particularly brightly at low-voltage operation, the technology will make it possible to overcome the heat and power-dissipation problems in high-performance ICs, and offer the mobile market a means of delivering reasonable performance at single-volt supply voltages.
 
 "If IBM's SOI gambit is successful, it could make waves on the systems side," says the article. "The technology could give IBM's RS/6000 workstations and AS/400 servers-as well as Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh line-a significant boost in the market against more-mainstream systems using Intel's Pentium and Merced processors."
 
 So what's it mean for the Mac user? Among other things, SOI and other new developments could spur the development of a dedicated line of enterprise class products.
 
 Meanwhile, Motorola is preparing a SOI BiCMOS process aimed at RF/IF circuits used in cellular-phone applications.


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