Globalfoundries Makes 20nm Test Chips

Chips have advanced quite quickly in terms of manufacturing node size, and Globalfoundries has announced that it already taped out 20nm test units, aided by leading EDA vendors.

Globalfoundries is one of the two major chip manufacturing corporations of the world, the other being TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company).

One thing that always helps such a company gain prestige is being fast at implementing more advanced manufacturing processes.

In this instance, Globalfoundries has revealed that its 20nm technology is actually in working order, albeit not yet in mass production stage.

Nevertheless, the outfit did finish its first batch of test chips, using flows from ECA companies Cadence Design Systems, Magma Design Automation, Mentor Graphics Corp., and Synopsys.

The 20nm process has several advanced manufacturing rules, meaning that tool providers had to collaborate with the foundry early on in development.

The four EDA companies above showed that their place-and-route (P&R) tools support said rules, and more.

“Our model of early collaboration with EDA partners accelerates the overall development cycle, and gives customers accessibility to the inner workings of the process so they can begin targeting their designs to the most advanced manufacturing capabilities with confidence,” said Mojy Chian, senior vice president of design enablement at Globalfoundries.

“This success is a major achievement toward market readiness of our newest process, and we will continue to enhance the design enablement support available for it."

All in all, customers who wish to evaluate Globalfoundries' 20nm technology need wait no longer, though this means that products based on it are only now approaching arrival times.

“Having achieved silicon success at the 28-nm node, several of Magma’s and Globalfoundries’ mutual customers are now moving to the 20-nm node,” said Premal Buch, general manager of Magma's Design Implementation Business Unit.

“The integrated double-pattern-compliant routing technology of Talus and mask decomposition technology of Quartz DRC combined with advanced process technology, provide Magma’s and Globalfoundries’ leading-edge customers with a silicon-proven design and manufacturing solution for the 20-nm node and beyond.”