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To: Yousef who wrote (50743)	3/18/1998 9:36:00 AM
From: Joey Smith	Respond to of 186894

Yousef, thanks for the info on copper. I used to work at IBM Microelectronics in Fishkill/Pok. and I have been talking to a few colleagues there. They are saying that IBM is indeed far ahead in this area (even more so than they are letting on in the press). Also, they just got their variable pay bonuses and their division did very well in 1997. It seems that IBM is making very good profit as a foundry outsource to the likes of Cyrix/AMD/etc. The question is, however, what are the effects on Intel? The bottom-line is making profits, so I doubt IBM will want to take on Intel directly (not anytime soon anyway) if their current business model is working so well. I'm glad to hear Intel is giving this top priority. Can you estimate how long/far behind Intel is with copper technology??? thanks, joey

To: Yousef who wrote (50743)	3/18/1998 12:03:00 PM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Yousef - Re: IBM Copper interconnect Technology IBM's paper at the ISSCC described their copper technology and performance using a PowerPC chip. With SIX levels of Copper/Metal and tungsten local interconnect and an Leff of 0.12 microns (n-channel), they reached only 480 MHz. Their measurements indicated a 40% reduction in RC delays, ALL OF WHICH WAS ATTRIBUTABLE TO REDUCED CAPACITANCE! They stated that the sheet resistance for a given interconnect - copper or aluminum - remained nearly constant! Paul