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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: Steve Porter who wrote (39573)10/18/1998 10:16:00 AM
From: Yousef  Read Replies (2) of 1578341
 
Steve,

Re: "On a serious "bi-partisan" note ... Just how much can you tweak a process
with today's equipment."

That's a very good and important question to answer, Steve ... I will try
to give you a "bi-partisan" answer. <ggg>

First, there are basically two ways to increase the speed of a CPU. Change
the process or understand the limiting speed paths and change the design. I
have seen designers fix critical speed paths with moving signals from thin
metal (Metal 1) to upper/thick metal (Metal 3/4/5). This is usually good
for a 5% -> 10% boost, depending on the design.

Next are simple process tweaks ... This usually is done at the poly/gate
level and linewidths are just decreased by 10nm -> 30nm (starting at .24um).
This can be done by just re-biasing the poly level and doesn't require new
Fab tools. The penalty is that the off-current will increase on the FET's
and the design will need to be able to tolerate an order of magnitude more
off-current/leakage. This is usually good for a 10% boost in performance.

Lastly is the new FET revision ... This is a much more major change. The
operating supply voltage will be reduced along with gate oxide thickness, doping
profiles and shorter poly/gate lengths (40nm > 60nm). This can give 30% -> 40%
increases in speed. These changes require more characterization and
qualification and could require some new equipment (maybe).

And Steve, believe it or not, this also applies to Intel. <ggg>

Make It So,
Yousef
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