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Technology Stocks : Texas Instruments - Good buy now or should we wait? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Spyder who wrote (4011)	8/26/1998 6:34:00 PM
From: Spyder	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6180

TI's 0.07-Micron CMOS Technology Ushers In Era of Gigahertz DSP and Analog Performance DALLAS, (August, 26, 1998) -- Researchers at Texas Instruments disclosed today that they have developed leading-edge silicon manufacturing technology based on the smallest announced transistors in the industry. Drawn using 0.10-micron rules, the transistors feature an effective channel length of just 0.07-micron -- 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. When the new CMOS process technology is released to production in the year 2001, TI will be able to pack more than 400 million transistors on a single chip, interconnected with up to seven layers of wiring. Operating frequencies exceeding 1 gigahertz (GHz), internal voltages as low as 1 V and below, and support for I/O signaling environments of up to 3.3 V will combine extremely high performance with ultra-low power consumption and design flexibility. For the first time in a leading-edge high-density process, the 0.07-micron transistors are designed for analog operation as well as digital. As a result, TI will be able to integrate mixed-signal functions along with high-speed digital logic and cores from the very beginning of the process life cycle. This capability allows TI to leverage its market and technology leadership in mixed-signal products and digital signal processors (DSPs) to create complete system solutions on a single chip. Among the other advanced products that will benefit from the advanced 0.07-micron CMOS process are UltraSPARCT microprocessors, which TI manufactures for SUN Microsystems. "In order to deliver the level of processor performance that our customers demand, Sun relies on the strength of its design team and the abilities of a world class device manufacturer," said Mel Friedman, president of Sun Microsystems' Microelectronics Division. "We are pleased to be the process driver behind Texas Instruments new technology. TI's demonstration of 0.07-micron technology is meaningful because it is the process technology that will keep the UltraSPARC family at the forefront of processor performance in the decade ahead of us. This process technology will enable our future generations of SPARC(TM) processors to extend the clock frequency well beyond one gigahertz." An era of gigahertz and above performance In addition to ultra-small-scale transistors that are tuned for both analog and digital performance, other TI research advances are also essential to the success of the new technology. TI's leadership in combining copper wiring with the low-k dielectric materials substantially lower on-chip resistance and capacitance. This, coupled with transistor and interconnect improvements, will enable a 10X increase in performance. TI is also an industry leader in its capability to integrate dual-threshold voltages, small embedded SRAM, embedded flash and embedded analog functions in a single high-density device. Working together, these technological advances will usher in the era of gigahertz performance, enabling future innovations requiring both analog and digital functionality such as wireless telephone handsets and base stations, hard disk drives, and asynchronous digital subscriber loop (ADSL) switches and modems, as well as in SPARC-based computers and other systems based on high-performance system-level IC products. "TI research has been at the forefront of the electronics industry since the earliest days of semiconductors," said Yoshio Nishi, TI Senior Vice President and director of research and development. "Now we are heading into a new millennium with a process technology that will make it possible to put the power of digital processing and supercomputing into a system that fits in the palm of your hand." Copper and low-k dielectric materials help bring notable performance increases As transistors scale down, interconnect wiring also shrinks in diameter and becomes more closely packed. As the wire surfaces become closer to each other, resistance rises and capacitance increases. With transistors that have gate widths smaller than about 0.2-micron, these electrical phenomena begin to impede performance significantly, potentially offsetting any gain that comes from scaling down the transistors. TI is an industry leader in its approach to reducing resistance and capacitance simultaneously. Like other leading companies, TI is moving toward use of copper in place of aluminum for wiring because it reduces resistance by a third. Copper also serves to lower manufacturing costs because it can be applied using a dual damascene manufacturing process that reduces process steps. However, lower resistance is only part of the solution. TI has also pioneered the use of insulating materials with a low dielectric constant, k, that diminishes wiring capacitance. "Used together with transistor improvements, copper wiring and low-k dielectrics enable chip performance to grow by a factor of 10," said Nishi. "By the time that the 0.07-micron process is in production, new TI products -- catalog as well as high-performance -- will use both copper and low-k dielectrics." In-depth capabilities for wide-ranging applications Within the industry, TI is exceptional in its ability to integrate complete system-on-a-chip solutions in high-density devices. Among the capabilities at the company's disposal are extremely small embedded SRAMs, with close to 500 Kbits per square millimeter (mm), and embedded flash memories with more than 3 million bits per square mm. Embedded analog functions serve as the interface between DSPs and the real world. Dual-threshold voltages enable higher processing performance with lower power consumption. TI DSPs and SPARC microprocessors will soon be operating at clock frequencies above 1 GHz -- several times the frequency of high-speed processors today. For end users, this high level of performance will enable new types of systems and new applications for familiar systems. Wireless telephones will be able to handle data and video as well as voice. ADSL modems will bring no-wait Internet access to consumers and small businesses. Hard disk drives will read gigabits of data per second for instantaneous access of large data bases. Teleconferencing will become commonplace on workstations and PCs. "During the past forty years the integrated circuit has truly revolutionized society," said Nishi. "But the years to come look equally exciting. TI research is continuing to make breakthroughs that will bring ever-greater capabilities to the systems of the future, so that the years to come will be equally revolutionary." Packaging and Availability New developments in packaging complement the innovative 0.07-micron technology. TI has developed a series of ball grid array (BGA) packages that use fine pitch wire bond and flip chip interconnects and have pincounts ranging from 352 to 1300 pins. Packages are capable of high frequency operations in the range of 200 megahertz through more than one gigahertz. Power dissipation in these packages ranges from four watts to 150 watts. TI plans to initiate designs in the new 0.07-micron CMOS process starting in the year 2000, with volume production beginning in 2001.

To: Spyder who wrote (4011)	8/27/1998 9:11:00 AM
From: Danny Hayden	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6180

Nice front page article in Dallas Morning News Business section, except for that IBM comment. TI develops way to link various chips Advance could boost leadership in DSP field 08/27/98 By Alan Goldstein / The Dallas Morning News Texas Instruments Inc. said Wednesday that it has developed a process to integrate its flagship product, digital signal processors, and related chips on a single sliver of silicon, producing semiconductors that are smaller, faster and more power-efficient. The Dallas-based chipmaker said the advance, which may be in production within three years, could widen its lead in the market for digital signal processors, or DSPs, which are used in digital cellular phones, modems, hard-disk drives and other electronic products. So-called "system on a chip" technology is being pursued aggressively by much of the semiconductor industry because it offers the possibility of lower production costs and improved product performance. TI's announcement comes as competition is heating up in the DSP business, one of the few segments of the semiconductor industry that is not in a slump. TI is the leader in the global DSP industry segment, with an estimated 45 percent of the market. Recently, International Business Machines Corp., Motorola Inc. and Lucent Technologies Inc. have all stepped up efforts to challenge TI's dominance in DSPs, which manipulate sounds and images in the digital language of computers. IBM has said it wants to clone a TI digital cell-phone DSP. "Looking forward, that won't be sufficient," said Peter Rickert, a senior member of TI's technical staff. Instead, Mr. Rickert said, electronics manufacturers will come to expect the functions of DSPs and related mixed-signal chips to be integrated. TI also holds a leading market position in mixed-signal chips. "Clearly, this plays to TI's strengths," said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts Co., a market research firm based in Tempe, Ariz. The chip integration is possible in part because TI has found a way to use smaller transistors, Mr. Rickert said. The new technology will pack 400 million transistors on a surface the size of a fingernail, several times the number on today's most-advanced chips. By designing smaller and denser chips, TI can get more from a standard silicon wafer. Smaller chips have an added benefit of being faster, because electrons have a shorter distance to cover. Faster chips, in turn, command higher prices and are potentially more profitable. Some rivals downplayed TI's announcement. An IBM spokesman said the company assumes TI will have achieved certain capabilities in production technologies, including the use of copper in place of aluminum for wiring the chips. IBM is believed to be ahead of its rivals in copper-related technology, which also makes chips faster because it reduces resistance. "They'll have to learn to walk before they can run," said William O'Leary, spokesman for IBM's chip division in East Fishkill, N.Y. "To me, this isn't news." Back to Top Send a letter to the Editor about this story Discuss this story in our technology forum Back to Science&Technology indexes c 1998 The Dallas Morning News