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"IBM Stacks Transistors" Question...

N

nowayout99

Senior member
Linky

I'm sure there's some explanation, but I'm curious. Several companies lately have been tooting the "3D transistor" horn. I'm wondering what the difference is between this harped-on transistor layering process as opposed to what companies already do with their chips... i.e. Doesn't the Pentium 4 have something like 6 transistor layers already? And the Athlon uses 9? (I know AMD went up one layer to improve T-bred performance.)

What's the difference, exactly?
 
The metal layers are not transistors... They are basically interconnects (circuits) which connect the transistors. Right now, the transistors are built into the silicon substrate in a single layer.

Here are a couple of (very basic) semiconductor manufacturing links:
How Chips are Made
The Semiconductor Manufacturing Process

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. (PM's are good, too.) 🙂

 
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