Re: The $50 Codec and Moore's law: Open Q. Is the mass adoption of the E4 awaiting Moore's law? Will .25 micron do it, or will E4 need to be .18 to make this price level?........." With most microprocessor makers bringing 0.25 micron CMOS processes on line over the next year, many of these vendors are now looking at forging ahead to the 0.18 micron level or, as an intermediate step, a 0.22 micron process. At this level, however, chip makers must confront a threat that has been lurking in the darkness ahead: the RC monster. Unless these vendors come up with new solutions, the resistance and capacitance of the interconnect will sap the preformance gains from faster thransistors, derailing Moore's Law.'
Fortunately, new matierials are at hand to improve the interconnect layers, ideally without even adding cost to the process. To reduce the resistivity of the metal layers, vendors are exploring the use of copper or gold in place of the traditional aluminum. IBM is the first to reveal plans to use copper, starting with its 0.20-micron process due next year.........the leap to true 0.18-micron CMOS processes will begin in 1999 as the leading vendors-likely to be TI, Intel, IBM, and Motorola again-ship their first microprocessor at that level. " |
