EE Times: Global Foundries opens for 28nm business

[cbn]

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4212171/GlobalFoundries-opens-for-28-nm-business

GlobalFoundries opens for 28-nm business
Peter Clarke
1/13/2011 7:20 AM EST

LONDON – GlobalFoundries Inc., along with EDA and IP partners, has announced the availability of a proven digital design flow for its 28-nm CMOS manufacturing process.

The process is dubbed "super low power" or SLP and includes a gate-first high-k metal gate stack. Customers can now produce sign-off ready 28-nm designs using a combination of synthesis, place and route, sign-off, and design-for-manufacturability tools, tool scripts, and methodologies, GlobalFoundries (Milpitas, Calif.) said.

The partners that are ready to help customers design towards the 28-nm process include Synopsys, Mentor, Magma, Apache, Cadence and ARM.

GlobalFoundries is claiming that its design flow includes superior design rule checking, called DRC+, which uses two-dimensional shape-based pattern-matching to enable up to a 100-fold speed improvement in identifying complex manufacturing issues without sacrificing accuracy.

Cadence has designed a multimillion transistor chip that occupies 9 square millimeters in the process as a proof of its design tools, including high-level synthesis, low power, routing, DFM, and verification. The design is expected to be silicon validated in the first half of 2011. The full design, implementation scripts, and a set of recommended methodology white papers on 28-nm routing and DFM will be available to customers in Q1 of 2011.

Synopsys tools include the Lynx Design System and Galaxy Implementation Platform for design and physical verification. Mentor has integrated its Olympus and Calibre routing and manufacturing scoring tools.

"Apache Design Solutions' focus is on delivering products that address the critical design challenges of power, noise, and reliability. The company's industry proven sign-off solutions for digital and custom IC power supply noise, electro-migration, and electro-static discharge have enabled many customers to predict and manage power related issues in their designs," in a statement issued by GlobalFoundries.

ARM's collaboration focused on the Artisan physical IP platform.

I wasn't expecting this to be ready so soon. I also think it is interesting that the high power 28nm wasn't mentioned.

 

[Daemas]

I do believe Intel is on track to release 22nm processors in Q3. How long until Global foundries will be at a node close to that?

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I do believe Intel is on track to release 22nm processors in Q3. How long until Global foundries will be at a node close to that?

Doubt it. Westmere was only previewed at CES 2010, Sandy Bridge not until a similar time a year later; Westmere was supposed to be released in 2009, and SB 2010. I don't think we'll see 22nm from Intel until well into 2012.

 

[coloumb]

Awesome news considering my job is in the semiconductor industry.

 

[cbn]

Awesome news considering my job is in the semiconductor industry.

It is amazing to me that only recently 45nm made its way onto smartphones (middle of 2010 IIRC). Having Gate First 28nm this quick should do wonders for performance.

Does anyone have predictions on how quick we could see Cortex A9 phones with this technology? How soon for Cortex A15 smartphones?

 

[gevorg]

I guess GF are getting ready for AMD's Souther Islands GPUs which are 28nm and due in H2 2011.

 

[zebrax2]

It is amazing to me that only recently 45nm made its way onto smartphones (middle of 2010 IIRC). Having Gate First 28nm this quick should do wonders for performance.

Does anyone have predictions on how quick we could see Cortex A9 phones with this technology? How soon for Cortex A15 smartphones?

Bumping typical clock speeds from 1.5 to 2.0GHz for the lower power designs, and from 2.0 to 2.5GHz on higher performance chips is good, but even more importantly GF saw power requirements drop up to 30%. Providing 25-33% more performance using 30% less power (and a 100% increase in standby battery life) will be key to enabling the next generation of mobile devices

EDIT:
Now that i read your post again it seems like your looking for a time-line rather than what i posted. At least we know that they have already produced a9 chips on it

 

[Idontcare]

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4212171/GlobalFoundries-opens-for-28-nm-business



I wasn't expecting this to be ready so soon. I also think it is interesting that the high power 28nm wasn't mentioned.

They can make these kinds of announcements pretty much at any time, there aren't any industry standards regarding the manufacturing worthiness of the underlying node before a foundry can email their "open for business" PR to the media sites.

Does this sound familiar?

TSMC lifts lid on 45-nm design methodology
6/4/2007

Seeking to make a big splash at the Design Automation Conference in San Diego this week, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. today will unveil its latest and most ambitious design methodology for IC production at the challenging 45-nanometer node.

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4071831/TSMC-lifts-lid-on-45-nm-design-methodology

TSMC 45nm now ready for production
Thursday 18 October 2007

Yuh-Jier Mii, senior director, R&D division, TSMC indicated that the company recently brought its 45nm low-power process node to production.

When the 45nm node is in production, TSMC will move on to the introduction of the low-power half-node 40nm process, and later, the generic 45nm node, he detailed. Industry players expect the first 45nm-made IC to hit the market during late 2007.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20071018PD205.html

Do you remember much of TSMC's 45nm node? In 2007/2008 no less?

 

[Zargon]

Doubt it. Westmere was only previewed at CES 2010, Sandy Bridge not until a similar time a year later; Westmere was supposed to be released in 2009, and SB 2010. I don't think we'll see 22nm from Intel until well into 2012.

I thought the Ivy was going supposed to 22nm and due Q4ish?

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I thought the Ivy was going supposed to 22nm and due Q4ish?

Yes. Except that from Nehalem on Intel's been late getting these out. So I see no reason why Ivy won't be either.

 

[Phynaz]

Yes. Except that from Nehalem on Intel's been late getting these out. So I see no reason why Ivy won't be either.

Intel addressed this in their conference call. With the economy in the tank, when the European debt crisis hit they slowed down factory build-out because they didn't what would happen to demand.

They are ramping back up, and have increased their 2011 capital expenditure budget to $9B. They want that fourth fab built soon.

Behind that what you are seeing as that we're being very aggressive of moving transistors to that leading-edge process technology and we do that, because we get paid for that process technology leadership. We get paid in terms of having lower costs. What was really striking in 2010, as we started the transition of graphics processors to that leading edge, we got paid in terms of the rising ASP because of the performance of the products. So, there is very high ROI for us that we are uniquely situated to take advantage of because of our process technology leadership. Those two things in conjunction take us from three to a four factory network.

Well, we haven't given out the product schedules for 22-nanometer. So let me give you a status at least in much detail as I'm willing to get to make public. We have finished development of the process. We are in yield learning deployment right now, running test ships in there, ramping the yields up on the technology. We have completed the design of our first microprocessor and have working microprocessors on that technology. At this point in time our plan is to ramp production wafers of that technology in the second half of this year with products launched at some point to follow.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Ah ok, that sounds good.

 

[bryanW1995]

Intel addressed this in their conference call. With the economy in the tank, when the European debt crisis hit they slowed down factory build-out because they didn't what would happen to demand.

They are ramping back up, and have increased their 2011 capital expenditure budget to $9B. They want that fourth fab built soon.

isn't skt 2011 coming out at the end of the year? based upon that I would assume a 2012 launch for IB, probably later in the year. They'd have a hard time getting many takers for skt2011 if IB launched just a few months later.

 

[IntelUser2000]

isn't skt 2011 coming out at the end of the year? based upon that I would assume a 2012 launch for IB, probably later in the year. They'd have a hard time getting many takers for skt2011 if IB launched just a few months later.

I don't think so, because enthusiasts want Socket 2011 for more cores anyway. The Ivy Bridge part releasing in Jan 2011 would be like the Sandy Bridge released few days ago - Mainstream.

 

[soccerballtux]

Doubt it. Westmere was only previewed at CES 2010, Sandy Bridge not until a similar time a year later; Westmere was supposed to be released in 2009, and SB 2010. I don't think we'll see 22nm from Intel until well into 2012.

Yeah except I was doing testing on some of Intel's 32nm chips in summer 09