14 DAY TRIAL // Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, TSMC for short, may deliver its first semiconductors with 3D interconnects by the end of this year, which cold mean that the foundry could beat Intel in offering the first 3D chips.
This information was published in a report issued by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), which quoted an anonymous source.
This source claimed that TSMC had a similar schedule with Intel when it came to the development 3D chips and that the Taiwanese foundry could actually become the first hardware maker to deliver chips using such a technology.
While the two companies both seek to develop products that use a tri-dimensional structure, the two technologies involved are actually very different and could actually become complementary in the future.
The technology that TSMC wants to employ in its products is called through silicon vias (TSV) and will be used for connecting different layers of a chip within the same package.
What this means is that upcoming SoC designs could stack memory, or other components, on top of the microprocessor in order to deliver improved performance.
In Intel's case, the Tri-Gate 3D technology is used to design the actual transistors used inside the chip, which enables the company to achieve higher transistor densities as well as to decrease the transistor switching time.
In fact, Intel is claiming that the move to 22nm Tri-Gate improves the density twofold, meaning that twice as many transistors can be fitted inside the same amount of die space.
At the same time, the technology will also improve the energy efficiency of future processor designs.
The first Intel processors to be built using the new Tri-Gate 3D technology will be the company's upcoming Ivy Bridge chips that are expected to become commercially available in March or April of 2012. (via EETimes)