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Technology Stocks : CYRIX / NSM -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe NYC who wrote (22840)	1/9/1998 1:21:00 AM
From: Yousef	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 33344

Joe, Re: "What voltage would 6x86MX, made under .25u process, need?" I believe that the TSMC .25um process uses a 2.5V supply voltage ... you see this TSMC .25um process is comparable to Intels .35um process in performance. The TSMC process is designed for ASIC's which are medium performance but need density to increase functionality. The IBM .25um process (CMOS7S) is what Cyrix really needs!! Make It So, Yousef

To: Joe NYC who wrote (22840)	1/9/1998 12:23:00 PM
From: Pravin Kamdar	Respond to of 33344

Joe, As the link mentioned, TSMC's 0.25u process supports 2.5 and 3.3 supply voltages with 5 volt IO tolerance. The 2.5V devices use a thinner gate oxide than the 3.3 volt devices. 5V IO tolerance in IO pads is achieved using clever circuit design using the 3.3 volt devices such that Vgs maximum voltages are not exceeded. I think 2.5V is standard for a 0.25u process (maybe a little high), but an ASIC process needs to provide supply voltage compatibility with older processes, so that customers can migrate their ASIC designs to lower price points using newer technologies, while at the same time being able to drop the part into existing boards that use the higher supply voltages. The Cyrix parts porbably just use the 2.5V devices everywhere on the chip. But, since the process supports the 3.3V devices, certain process trade-offs were probably made that tend to limit the performance of the 2.5V devices. A single gate low voltage 0.25u process would not have to make these compromises. Pravin.