Transmeta Begins Production of 90-Nanometer Efficeon Processor
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&quot;Our achievement of limited production status for our 90-nm Efficeon TM8800 is a key milestone for Transmeta. We set aggressive goals for our 90-nm program, and we have realized impressive
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A 40-nanometer chip production technique is key to making chips smaller, faster, more powerful, and cheaper to produce.
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Taiwanese firm makes mulitmedia performance a key measure of its upcoming processor.
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(InfoWorld) - Intel said Tuesday it will ramp up performance and energy efficiency in its microprocessors by using a 32-nanometer process technology starting in 2009. During a keynote at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini showed a 300mm wafer built using the 32-nm manufacturing technology. The chip will house more than 1.9 billion transistors and its increased performance will enable "true to life entertainment and real-life graphics capabilities," Otellini said in his keynote. The chips will be an upgrade over processors built using the 45-nm process Intel is incorporating in its Penryn processor, due in November, and Silverthorne and Nehalem processors, slated to appear early and in the second half of next year, respectively. Intel currently uses a 65-nm process to manufacture chips, and Penryn is the code name given to the 45-nm "shrink" of Intel's current chip designs. The measurements refer to the size of the features on the silicon chip. In the first public demonstration of the Nehalem processor, Otellini said it will deliver better performance per watt and better system performance through its QuickPath Interconnect system architecture, which will include an integrated memory controller and improved communication links between system components. Otellini also announced a Penryn dual-core processor operating at 25 watts that will be available on the upcoming Montevina platform, which will also include WiMax technology. To meet multiple computing needs, Otellini said Intel also plans to introduce 15 new 45-nm processors by the end of the year and 20 in the first quarter of 2008. Intel isn't the first to announce 32-nm chip technology. In May, a group of chipmakers led by IBM agreed to further collaborate to jointly develop 32-nm semiconductor production technology. Other companies in the collaboration include Freescale Semiconductor, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Infineon Technologies, and Samsung Electronics. There was nothing surprising in Otellini's keynote, said Doug Freedman, an analyst at American Technology Research. Intel's road map tends to be conservative, and the company is well on track to meeting its time line, he said. With the new chips, users will continue to get more processing performance at a similar price point, he said.
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Advanced Micro Devices plans to demonstrate its version of a new approach to processor design, with a chip that is expected to offer faster computing and relatively less power consumption.
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Chip maker says it will use methods other than clock speed to improve processor performance.
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One-time low-power chip manufacturer Transmeta will lay off up to 68% of its current workforce by the end of the third calendar quarter, concentrating the remainder of its resources on the licensing of its existing designs to AMD and others, as well as to pursue the final resolution of its courtroom battle against Intel.
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Implemented using Texas Instruments&#39; 90 nanometer process technology, UltraSPARC IV+ will double the application throughput of the existing UltraSPARC IV through expanded caches and buffers, a better branch prediction mechanism, augmented prefetching
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(InfoWorld) - Transmeta will stop offering engineering services in order to focus entirely on developing and licensing intellectual property, the Santa Clara developer of chip technologies said on Monday. The move follows aÂ restructuringÂ in early 2005 that cut its chip sales business in order to focus on engineering services and intellectual property licensing. "Over the past year, the level of activity for engineering services has declined dramatically due to the completion of programs and our customers' declining staffing requirements," said Les Crudele, president and CEO of Transmeta, during a conference call to discuss the change. "As a result, the billable time for our engineers has declined to the point that the projects are no longer sufficient to cover the costs associated with that business." On Friday, Transmeta laid off 75 employees, mostly engineers in the services business, and expects to let go another 25 to 55 people in the next few quarters. The majority of Transmeta's engineering business came from Microsoft and Sony. Last year, SonyÂ reduced its deal with TransmetaÂ and its contract ends in March. Transmeta has also completed a services contract with Microsoft on theÂ FlexGo project, a program that enables customers in developing economies to buy computers and software on a pay-as-you-go basis. Transmeta plans to retain some staff in order to support that program as it progresses past the trial phase. Transmeta also plans to close its sales and support offices in Taiwan and Tokyo. Without the drag of the engineering services business, Transmeta hopes that it can build its licensing business by attracting more customers. Currently, companies including NEC, Fujitsu, Sony. and Toshiba license technology from Transmeta. The company has been talking to chip makers outside of Japan about licensing deals but isn't ready to make any announcements yet, Crudele said.
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Sun Microsystems has tapped Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) to manufacture its latest UltraSparc processors, Sun said Tuesday.The Taiwanese company will also collaborate with Sun in the OpenSparc program to expand research on the processors in Taiwan. The two companies plan to expand the university outreach program in Taiwan, as well as offer OpenSparc technology to other TSMC customers.TSMC will manufacture UltraSparc processors using its 45-nanometer production technology, as well as future generations of the UltraSparc, Sun said to a statement. Texas Instruments, Sun&#39;s current UltraSparc partner, will continue to test and package the processors.Sun tapped TSMC for production because of its lower costs, in addition to its advanced technology, Sun said. The companies are already working to make the transition to TSMC from TI as fast as possible, Sun added.TSMC is the world&#39;s largest contract chip maker.The term 45-nanometer refers to making chips with transistors and other components as tiny as 45nm, enabling them to be smaller, more powerful and energy-efficient. The nanometer term describes the size of the smallest feature that can be manufactured on a single chip. There are about three to six atoms in a nanometer and there are a billion nanometers in a meter.TSMC has said that some types of chips made using 45nm technology are generally 40 percent smaller than the slightly older 65nm size, use less power, and have 40 percent greater functionality.Currently, most chips are still made using technology 90nm and larger, but the move to smaller sizes is increasing, led by high end chips such as DRAM (dynamic RAM), microprocessors, core logic chip sets, and graphics processors. Intel, the world&#39;s largest chip maker, was first to mass produce chips using 45nm technology.The move to developing smaller chip manufacturing technology is crucial to meet user demand for ever smaller devices that can do more, such as mobile phones with built-in PDA (personal digital assistant) and camera functions, and digital music players. Chip makers can also increase output using the smaller technology.Sun has established six major universities as OpenSparc Technology Centers of Excellence so far, all of them in the U.S. The schools include the University of California, Santa Cruz; University of Texas, Austin; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Stanford University; and Carnegie Mellon University. The universities must sign a two-year commitment to execute chip design research and course work based on Sun&#39;s chip multi-threading (CMT) design.If a Taiwanese university is chosen to participate as an OpenSparc Technology Center of Excellence, it will be the first outside the U.S.
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By Subashini Selvaratnam  INTEL Corp is working on a new 45-nanometre (nm) transistor technology which will boost the processing speeds in personal computers (PCs), laptops and servers.
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Chip-making technique to fuel AMD64, PowerPC, 'Cell' production
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The so-called Santa Rosa Refresh will replace Centrino's current processors with chips made using a 45-nanometer production process instead of the 65-nm process now in use.
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Transmeta Corp. has begun shipping its second-generation Efficeon processors, the TM8800 series.
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As the company lowered its guidance by about $2 million, Transmeta Corp. revealed today that limited production shipments of its TM8800 series Efficeon processors began earlier this month.
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Company will manufacture a dual-core PowerPC processor.
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Transmeta has licensed its LongRun2 power management technology to Fujitsu, the second customer to purchase the rights to use the technology, Transmeta said Thursday.