I guess the race is on;
ST's chip will have a DRAM embed
Crolles, France
SGS-Thomson Microelectronics N.V. next month plans to announce a system-on-a-chip with embedded DRAM.
The device, the first of the Omega line, will include 1-Mbit DRAM, with later versions being upgraded to 4 Mbits. ST has licensed the embedded DRAM technology from VLSI Libraries, a U.S. circuit-design house now known as Artisan Components. ST is also teaming up with the University of California at Berkeley, where an ST design team is working.
Next month's announcement will mark the first time the European chip maker has fabricated DRAM circuitry on ICs in any quantity.
ST has also developed a yet-unannounced 64-bit, proprietary, multimedia microprocessor called the Chameleon. It will be used in an automotive system-on-a-chip that will include navigation, Global Positioning System, GSM wireless phone, DVD audio, and radio-link data-system functions.
ST is also close to announcing its first 300-mm-wafer fab, which will perform volume production of the system-on-a-chip product lines.
Because of the integrated MPU/ DRAM chips' large size, they cannot be made economically on 8-in. (200-mm) wafers. ST has drafted 300-mm-wafer-fab specification requirements, said Andrea Cuomo, ST's vice president of marketing and strategic partners. The company will most likely build the 300-mm-wafer fab adjacent to the current R&D and production fab here.
ST's push into embedded DRAM and MPUs follows a disclosure from Japan's Toshiba Corp. of its plans for a system-on-a-chip division and research center. Details of the previously undisclosed ST plans emerged from interviews with ST executives here and at the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International Semicon Europa Show in Grenoble, France, and Geneva, Switzerland.
The new system-on-a-chip technology is so complex that "initially there will be very few suppliers," Cuomo said. "There will also be a few large OEM customers wanting their own custom-design chips." He predicted a fiercely competitive battle to sign up OEMs in an early niche market.
The first Omega system-on-a-chip will be targeted for use in digital-TV set-top boxes, DVDs, and digital TV. The Omega will replace chip sets of several devices now used, sharply lowering the cost and increasing the speed of video and image processing, ST said.
The single chip will integrate DRAM, an ST-20 microprocessor core, an MPEG audio and video decoder, and SRAM cache memory. The digital set-top-box version will include transport control and encryption.
Another embedded DRAM and ST-20 MPU chip is planned for use as a controller for hard drives. Full production of this chip is expected to begin in the fourth quarter.
Combining DRAM and logic on the same chip is a major technological challenge, said Catherine Mallardeau, center manager of embedded DRAM at ST R&D.
ST said it integrated the two functions by going to a very small DRAM cell size that can be fabricated more easily with logic processes. The initial size of ST's 1-Mbit DRAM cell is 9 microns square. The company is working to reduce the size to 3 microns square.
The Chameleon 64-bit microprocessor is slated to do high-speed video and graphics processing for multimedia applications. Cuomo said it is a new design and not based on ST's existing workhorse, the ST-20 MPU. The next-generation 64-bit MPU does not use very-long-instruction-word architecture, he said.
ST plans to expand its system-on-a-chip family to include analog on the same piece of silicon as digital memory and logic elements, Cuomo said. Who else is putting analog and digital on one chip?
Separately, ST last week opened an 8-in.-wafer production line at its fab in Catania, Sicily. That facility will produce flash chips for smart cards and other ICs.
It also sounds like this could take a while |
