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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (10281)	6/8/2004 8:54:29 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Leakage threatens CMOS scaling, panel warns by Brian Fuller EE Times 06/08/2004, 10:26 AM ET SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- Disaggregated sectors of the electronics design industry need to come together to solve the serious problems associated with leakage if CMOS scaling is to continue in the coming years, a panel agreed Monday (June 7). "This problem is getting worse; it's getting worse rapidly," said Jerry Frenkil, vice president of advanced development at Sequence Design. While the leading-edge issues have usually been attacked and slain by process researchers, that's no longer the case as leakage grows exponential as gate oxides thicken and power grows. While there's no one sector that's going to offer the silver bullet, much of the onus is on the design community, both the designers and the software vendors, Frenkil said. Shekhar Bokar, director of Intel Corp.'s Circuit Research Lab in Oregon, smacked down the notion that EDA vendor would bring much to the table to solve the problem. While he equated living with leakage with having to pay taxes, Borkar said, "Leakage was a problem eight years ago and EDA was sleeping. It still is sleeping. I've given up on EDA." But collaboration as a way to harness disparate disciplines to solve the problem is a fuzzy notion too. One member of the audience suggested having the government fund research to solve the problem, as it does in many other areas. "The solutions are not going to come from the established companies," said Scott Becker, chief technologist and co-founder of ip vendor Artisan Components. "They're going to come from startups because their livelihood is making things happen quickly." Frenkil and Borkar engaged in a debate over whether the licensed-based EDA business model is enough of an environment to generate tools to solve problems such as leakage. Pitts noted that recent announcements have suggested some products are being held up because of power. "it's going to drive an economic need to solve this problem. There won't be an EDA company without an interest in solving this problem." "Somehow there has to be a partnership or shared risk with EDA companies to resolve it. The EDA companies can't provide you with solutions it's perhaps because the economics aren't there," Frenkil said. "If you come up with a solution with a 10x leakage reduction, I'll buy it in a day," Borkar said. Pitts disputed Frenkil's notion, saying TI works closely with many EDA vendors to try to solve these problems.