14 DAY TRIAL // IBM and leading semiconductor manufacturers Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd., GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Infineon Technologies, Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., and STMicroelectronics have jointly announced their plans to develop a 28nm high-k metal gate (HKMG), low-power CMOS process technology. The move is meant to provide the industry with support for the development of a variety of power-efficient mobile and consumer electronics applications, with a focus on the fast-growing market for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs).
“Through this collaboration, IBM and its alliance partners are helping to accelerate development of next-generation technology to achieve high-performance, energy-efficient chips at the 28nm process level, maintaining our focus on technology leadership for our clients and partners,” said Gary Patton, vice president for IBM's Semiconductor Research and Development Center on behalf of the technology alliance.
While working on the 28nm process technology, the alliance will take advantage of the experience it accumulated on the development of the 32nm technology, consequently enabling a faster migration from 32nm to 28nm. According to a press release from the alliance, the early risk production of the 28nm low-power technology is slated for the second half of 2010.
According to early testing, this next-generation process technology is said to provide a 40 percent performance increase over currently available 45nm products. In addition the products built on 28nm can deliver 20 percent power reduction, also being half the size of the 45nm chips.
Processors built using the upcoming 28nm manufacturing technology will be capable of providing the end-user with a considerable performance boost, while also reducing the power consumption of a certain device. The move to 28nm technology will enable companies such as AMD or Samsung to deliver products that are more competitive and provide better performance, compared to today's available solutions.
The announcement comes after Intel, the world's leading manufacturer of computer processors, has announced its intention to accelerate the development of 32nm manufacturing technology.