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To: Pravin Kamdar who wrote (86192)	8/1/2002 3:01:19 PM
From: andreas_wonisch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Pravin, Re: Here is more detail about AMD's deal with Saifun Thanks for the link. BTW, I am the only one who thinks that AMD handled this whole litigation process extremely well? Instead of a long lasting court battle they chose to collaborate and turned Saifun into a partner. I am not sure how good Saifun's technology flash IP really is but the cost for AMD is modest and there's a lot of promise (e.g. 4-bit cells). Andreas

To: Pravin Kamdar who wrote (86192)	8/1/2002 3:31:00 PM
From: Petz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Pravin, the Saifun technology looks like it is far better than anything either Intel or AMD has. EDITED - even better. As a result, AMD may be able to bring four-bit-per-cell products to market as early as 2004, in device densities of 1 Gbit or higher. Plouse said AMD aims to build a cell that would be 3.5 times larger than the lithographic feature size. AMD plans to build on that basic cell architecture for flash products aimed at data storage applications. As a rough approximation, on 0.13u, that would make a 4-bit cell which occupies 0.455 x 0.455 microns, if I understand correctly. A tiny 5mm by 5mm die would have room for 10,989 x 10,989 cells x 4 bits/cell, or almost 483 million bits. That's over 19 million bits per square mm of silicon! Even allowing for decoding and addressing, it looks like a 256MBit chip would fit in less than 15-20mm of silicon real estate. I don't have any numbers, but my guess is that's smaller than the 64MBit mirror-bit chip AMD is selling now. Intel will have to license this technology or drop out of the flash market, IMO. There is no way on earth that a reliable 16-level cell (4 bits) can be made, and I doubt there is any other way to put 4 bits in a cell that doesn't infringe on either AMD's or Saifun's technology. The main risk I see is that mass-manufacturing the 4-bit cells might be more difficult than lab-manufacturing them. The justice department should never let Intel buy Saifun so I think Intel will be forced to pay through the nose to license the technology. Petz