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

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (10386)	6/15/2004 5:18:32 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

Japan dominates IC-equipment customer satisfaction rankings siliconstrategies.com

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (10386)	6/16/2004 8:54:33 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

Intel: Copper Here to Stay By Jessica Davis -- Electronic News, 6/16/2004 Intel will continue to use copper interconnects for several more technology nodes, saying optical interconnect is better suited for long distances than as a replacement for copper. That's according to Shekhar Borkar, an Intel fellow and director of circuit research for microprocessor technology at the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company. Borkar offered the insight during a briefing to reporters on the seven papers Intel is presenting this week at the Symposium of VLSI Circuits in Honolulu. "I don't see anything to replace copper," said Borkar, who is also chair of the circuits symposium this year. "We are very interested in optical for distances that copper can't go." Focusing on the looming industry issue of power – both delivery and dissipation -- the seven papers focused on different research efforts at Intel to optimize this in future chips. Borkar also echoed the a recent turnaround in the company's focus regarding a chip's value – that many factors contribute to how good a chip is, not just clock speed. Papers looked at solving the problems of leakage, variance and other power related challenges. One of the research efforts focused in improving soft error rates, a growing problem as chips scale to smaller nodes. By using body bias, Borkar said, the company as gotten a 23 percent to 35 percent improvement in soft error rates. "In the past we've said body bias is good for leakage control," he said. "But this use brings new insight into soft errors for the industry." Other papers covered a variety of research topics, including: a Viterbi accelerator in 90 nanometer CMOS, a device offering a 21 percent to 39 percent power advantage over the best comparable offerings today. a 6.5GHz variation tolerant 64-bit register file in 90nm CMOS providing a 20 percent improvement in delay spread and five times the robustness. an integrated DC to DC converter with air-core inductors for future power delivery an integrated linear regulator with ultra-fast load regulation on-die adaptation and test in GPS I/O