AB,
Re: "Yousef, Why do you call NSM a technology follower?"
There are a couple of reasons that I call NSM a "process technology follower".
First, NSM (as you correctly state) is focused primarily on analog processes.
This means that they have optimized their processes for parameters like
capacitor and resistor linearity, and FET Idsat matching. These are
absolutely needed for Analog, but of little use for digital processes.
The key parameters in a digital process is to get the highest FET drive
current (Idsat) at the lowest voltage. This device technology thens needs
to be matched to a high performance interconnect (low resistance and
capacitance) process. Thus an analog process is very different from
a state-of-the-art digital CPU process.
Secondly, I have worked closely with all the SEMATECH member companies.
These companies breakdown into basically two "camps". The technology
leaders/early adopters and the followers. Intel, Motorola, TI, IBM, even AMD
are the technology leaders while NSM, HP, Rockwell, Lucent are the technology
followers. This can be seen by the way each company prioritizes the
various projects at SEMATECH.
Be careful, not all .25um processes are the same ... Intel and AMD have
very different .25um technologies. AMD's has been optimized for density/minimum
die size while Intel's is optimized for CPU performance. It's not
clear where NSM's .25um process will fall relative to Intel and AMD.
Make It So,
Yousef |
