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To: grok who wrote (82453)	6/2/1999 2:12:00 AM
From: Elmer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Re: "Paul, why doesn't Intel convert from Silicon to Germanium? I hear it's faster." In the words of Robert Noyce, Germanium is the wave of the future, and always will be. (or was it Gordon Moore?) EP

To: grok who wrote (82453)	6/2/1999 2:28:00 AM
From: Process Boy	Respond to of 186894

KZNerd - <Paul, why doesn't Intel convert from Silicon to Germanium? I hear it's faster.> 1) Cost 2) Complexity (infrastructure for Si, not Ge). PB

To: grok who wrote (82453)	6/2/1999 2:47:00 AM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

KZNerd - Re: " why doesn't Intel convert from Silicon to Germanium? I hear it's faster." Now you are joking ! 1. Germanium cannot grow a native thermal oxide - unlike Silicon - in which SiO2 is the fundamental insulator for isolation and fundamental dielectric for MOS gates. 2. Germanium has very poor thermal characteristics - that is, performance is better than silicon at room temperature (due to higher mobility of holes and electrons) but this mobility degrades VERY RAPIDLY with temperature, resulting in much poorer performance as the temperature increases (due to power dissipation). 3. Technology investment in silicon is many orders of magnitude higher than in Ge - Silicon is a VERY WELL UNDERSTOOD SEMICONDUCTOR. Paul