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To: Maurice Winn who wrote (3058)	2/22/1999 1:56:00 AM
From: djane	Respond to of 29987

New IBM chip packs power, memory [Could be nice for G next-gen phones] By Kevin Maney, USA TODAY IBM will unveil Monday a breakthrough system-on-a-chip technology that could, in about three years, put the power of five of today's desktop computers into a cellular phone. The technology for the first time takes a high-performance processor and adds as much memory as is in three to four PCs and puts it all on a single silicon chip. The development creates a powerful computer in a thumbnail-size package. Other companies, such as LSI Research and Samsung, have added limited processing power to a memory chip, but the performance of those chips has always been on the low end. A chip such as IBM's "has been talked about for three or four years, but the technological problems had been insurmountable," says G. Dan Hutcheson of VLSI Research, who was shown the chip by IBM. The chips are expected to be used in products such as cell phones and hand-held computers, making it possible for the devices to be much more powerful a couple of generations sooner. "You could have enough memory to store voice-mail messages right on the cell phone," Hutcheson says. Palm-size computers could finally have enough power to handle voice recognition, says Bijan Divari, the IBM fellow who led the chip's development. Consumer products with the chips might not come for three to five years, Divari says. The first applications will probably be in high-end computers such as Internet routers. The chips can take the place of many, previously separate components. That should reduce the cost of the computers and increase performance. "It will be a superb technology for helping build the communications infrastructure," says Fred Zieber of Pathfinder Research. The chip announced Monday is essentially a laboratory model. IBM will start designing versions of the chips for customers in April. The chips probably will show up in high-end machines next year, Divari says. Two IBM developments help make the chips possible. One is the much-heralded 1998 discovery of how to use copper wiring in silicon chips instead of aluminum. Copper wiring can be much thinner while maintaining high performance, allowing for more dense chips. The other key is memory, called trench DRAM. Most DRAM capacitors stick up from the layers of silicon. IBM has drilled into the silicon, leaving more room to pack the surface. It's like putting the furnace in the basement, vs. the living room, Divari says. Those developments, plus IBM's next-generation microprocessor, give you "high performance out of both memory and logic," Zieber says.