The future for the Macintosh draws a line straight through the copper chip and SOI technology. Here's a few reads to fill you in on the timeline and performance expectations.
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IBM need not push to the more expensive lithographic tools to achieve a performance
boost normally gained by shrinking line widths.
Diefendorff said combining SOI with copper will let chip makers reduce the capacitance
on both the wires and transistors, and enable higher-clock-rate processors to operate
without burning up. But he said that to get to gigahertz speeds, designers must
adapt state-of-the-art processor designs to SOI, starting from the ground up.
eetimes.com
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"If you look at the research papers put out by Intel, they are not putting as much of a
priority on SOI and copper as IBM is," said MDR's Diefendorff. "But eventually, they are
going to have to do this."
While a licensing agreement is not totally out of the question, Intel rivals Advanced Micro
Devices Inc. and National Semiconductor Inc.'s Cyrix Corp. -- both of which have foundry
agreements with IBM -- may be able to produce such chips sooner.
Already, AMD has signed on with Motorola to produce chips based on copper technology
similar to IBM's.
web-e6.zdnet.com
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The prototype PLL operates at 1.2 GHz at a 1.5-V supply voltage. Power
consumption is about 3 mW, roughly one-ninth of that of corresponding BiCMOS
PLL fabricated on conventional bulk wafers.
edtn.com
I like my iMac, I like my iMac, I like my iMac, I like my iMac, I like my iMac, I like my iMac.
Say THAT real fast!
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