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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dave Parr who wrote (34329)	7/12/1998 4:44:00 PM
From: Yousef	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 1572134

Dave, Re: "I would love to understand what Process Technology means, so I can understand how you can quantify the amount of years AMD is behind Intel." First let me answer one of your other questions ... Intel uses IC process equipment that is available to be purchased by AMD. Granted, Intel will modify some equipment to obtain better process control ... but, AMD could also do the same thing. So, process technology refers to sequence/recipe of the process, various film thicknesses and various space and width dimensions. A typical .25um process could have 125 different steps/operations with each step containing 1-5 "sub steps" ... Example: Step --> Gate Lithography Sub Steps: Spin/Bake BARC ............... Spin/Bake Photoresist ............... Expose Resist (Gate Mask) ............... Develop Resist ............... Measure Critical Dimensions (Line and Space) ............... Measure Overlay/Registration (Alignment) Then within the "sub steps", various film materials, thicknesses and dimensions are determined. Some of the key factors for performance are: Gate oxide thickness Gate length Source-Drain extension depth/dose Gate spacer thickness Some of the key factors for density (size of chip) are: Contacted isolation pitch Contacted gate pitch Contacted metal pitches Local Interconnect (Yes/No) My statements about AMD being 2-3 years behind Intel are based on performance. AMD's .25um process gate length and gate oxide thickness more closely match Intel's .35um process. Also, AMD supply voltage of 2.2V for .25um more closely matches Intel's .35um 2.5V process. This is what leads to AMD needing their .25um process just to match Intel's .35um P5 speed/performance. Since a process generation like .25um takes about 2-3 years to develop, this is why I state that AMD is behind by that amount ... I have been saying this for over a year now and the speed bin data (K6) backs up my assessments. Hope this helps. Make It So, Yousef