No HKMG in AMD's Upcoming 40/54nm CPUs

There have been quite a number of rumors dealing with the upcoming microprocessors from AMD, including the six-core, but one of the reports more discussed was the possibility of these chips being built with Globalfoundries' HKMG technology. This idea arose following a brochure in which Globalfoundries stated that, “Customers will begin to announce HKMG product results in early 2010 – not test chips, not 64M SRAMs, not IP shuttle results, but full products,” the success of which was implied to be predicted as equal to that of “45/40nm ramp.”

HKMG stands for high-k metal gate dielectrics. The rumors surrounding this technology implied that, even as soon as the first quarter of the ongoing year, AMD's 6-core and other chips based on the 45nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process technology would feature this element. This idea seemed to be enforced by the fact that the upcoming AMD processors had the PH-Ex revision name and were superior to previous generations in both performance and power efficiency. More recently, however, the rumors have been officially denied by AMD and its contract maker of chips.

“We have no HKMG process at 40/45nm SOI or Bulk. The statement in our brochure is related to us introducing products using HKMG technology into our fab in Q1. We are not specifying who (as we have multiple customers that have lined up to support our HKMG technology) or what products (or exact process variant) at this time. HKMG is focused on 32nm/28nm generations,” Jon Carvill, the head of public relations at Globalfoundries, said.

XbitLabs reports that Advanced Micro Devices also stated that its 40nm/45nm product roadmap included no plans for the insertion of HKMG into the silicon-on-insulator. As such, it seems that end-users will have to wait for the 32nm- and 28nm-generation chips if they want to see the new technology in action.