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

To: RDM who wrote (55313)	4/13/1999 12:15:00 PM
From: Elmer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573824

Re: "It may be that Intel has different insulating materials, smaller channel lengths, different doping profiles, or thinner insulators. Any one of these factors may result in a diminished ability to operate at higher voltages. " Don't you have this backwards? Wouldn't it be better stated that these are the process factors that allow them to run a lower voltages? They can always do bigger channels or thicker insulators. The trick is to do thinner. EP

To: RDM who wrote (55313)	4/13/1999 5:52:00 PM
From: Process Boy	Respond to of 1573824

RDM - Steam in the channel (?) Never heard of this concern. What was the target application? There was a startup company a few years ago that held a record for failing after consuming the most venture capital ever in silicon valley (hundreds of millions). The technology they were pursuing was to create chips that were to dissipate hundreds of watts. They had special channels for cooling liquids to flow through. They failed due to steam voids forming in the channels and blocking flow of the cooling liquids. Sometimes truth is weirder than fiction. As for Intel and not tweaking Vcc up, maybe the items you outline are the reason, but probably more for reliability concerns than for yield. It may be that Intel has different insulating materials, smaller channel lengths, different doping profiles, or thinner insulators. Any one of these factors may result in a diminished ability to operate at higher voltages. These are the same factors that restrict AMD to 2.4v rather than 5 volts. At five volts the chips would be faster yet if they could withstand the voltage. Of course at 5 volts, if it were possible, the power would be considerably higher as well (in the vicinity of 80 watts). PB