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oltre alle news sul nuovo HT e la commercializazione di Shangai e Deneb vorrei segnalare anche un'latra notizia passata in sordina qui in italia ma molto importante sul fronte degli sviluppi furturi dei processori AMD e la partnership con IBM

quote dell'articolo:

IBM and its joint development partners - AMD, Freescale, STMicroelectronics, Toshiba and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) - today announced the first working static random access memory (SRAM) for the 22 nanometer (nm) technology node, the world's first reported working cell built at its 300mm research facility in Albany, NY.

22 nm is two generations away in chip manufacturing. The SRAM cell utilizes a conventional six-transistor design and has an area of 0.1µm2, breaking the previous SRAM scaling barriers.

Traditionally, an SRAM chip is made denser by shrinking its basic building block, often referred to as a cell. IBM-alliance researchers optimized the SRAM cell design and circuit layout to improve stability and developed several novel fabrication processes in order to make the new SRAM cell possible. The researchers utilized high-NA immersion lithography to print the aggressive pattern dimensions and densities and fabricated the parts in its state-of-the-art 300mm semiconductor research environment.

SRAM cell size is a key technology metric in the semiconductor industry, and this work demonstrates IBM and its partners' continued leadership in cutting-edge process technology.

Key enablers of the SRAM cell include band edge high-K metal gate stacks, transistors with less than 25 nm gate lengths, thin spacers, novel co-implants, advanced activation techniques, extremely thin silicide, and damascene copper contacts.

I would like to note that IBM’s achievement seems even more significant, because the company managed to outpace Intel in developing new promising manufacturing technologies. As you know, Intel showcased the first test chip made with 32nm process a year ago. However, they haven’t yet reported anything about 22nm process. And it means that AMD, IBM’s technological recipient, may get an advantage in their competition with Intel. This is especially important, since AMD is still behind Intel in introducing new manufacturing technologies: their transition to 45nm production process is currently planned to complete only by the end of this year.


fonte:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/dis...mory_Cell.html