Company's 14nm map boosts clients' direction to FinFET technology
GLOBALFOUNDRIES today multiplied its leading-edge map with the release of a new technological advancement designed for the growing mobile market. The organization's 14nm-XM offering will give clients the performance and energy advantages of three-dimensional "FinFET" transistors with less risk and a quicker time-to-market, assisting the fabless environment sustain its authority in flexibility while enabling a new creation of intelligent cell phone gadgets.
The XM appears for "eXtreme Mobility," and it is the sector's major non-planar architecture that is truly optimized for mobile system-on-chip (SoC) styles, offering a whole product remedy from the transistor all the way up to the program stage. The technological advancement is predicted to provide a 40-60% enhancement in battery power in comparison to modern two-dimensional planar transistors at the 20nm node.
The 14nm-XM offering is depending on a flip technological advancement architecture that uses a 14nm FinFET system along with components of GLOBALFOUNDRIES' 20nm-LPM procedure, which is well on its way to growth. Utilizing the maturation of the 20nm-LPM technological advancement will allow a sleek conversion for clients looking to tap the advantages of FinFET SoCs as soon as possible. Technology growth is already ongoing, with test rubber running through GLOBALFOUNDRIES' Fab 8 in Saratoga Nation, N.Y. Beginning procedure style sets (PDKs) are available now, with client tape-outs predicted in 2013.
"We have more than a several years of FinFET R&D to develop on as we get ready to bring this technological advancement to growth," said Gregg Bartlett, Primary Technology Official at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. "We are assured this groundwork will allow us to lead the foundry amount slam of FinFETs, just as we did with High-K Steel Checkpoint (HKMG)."
Building on a Base of HKMG Expertise
The FinFET architecture takes the conventional two-dimensional transistor style and changes the conductive route on its side, leading to a three-dimensional "fin" structure enclosed by a gate that manages the circulation of present. A key benefit of FinFET technological advancement is its excellent low-power features. The 3D transistor style basically functions at a lower current with little present leak, which results in longer battery power for specialist or less energy intake for plugged-in programs such as social media snacks in datacenters.
"Many people don't realize that FinFETs develop upon the same essential mobile power as modern HKMG technological advancement," said G. Dan Hutcheson, CEO and Chair of VLSI Research. "While HKMG was a significant advancement in leak decrease, FinFETs are a great discovery in this value undertaking that clear the way for many decades of enhancements. But to completely draw out the value of FinFET technological advancement, a company needs to be in amount growth of HKMG. GLOBALFOUNDRIES has a jump start in this area with almost two decades of high-volume production experience with HKMG."
Not All 3D Transistors are Created Equal
GLOBALFOUNDRIES has designed a new strategy to technological advancement meaning that has led to a cost-effective and power-optimized FinFET technological advancement that is preferably matched for the mobile SoC market. The 14nm-XM architecture hits the ideal balance between performance and energy intake, while reducing both die size and price. Simultaneously, the technological advancement has been architected for the best possible manufacturability and convenience of style, with a view to enabling developers to re-use much of their IP from past years. Additionally, concern is given to SoC-level issues beyond the transistor architecture, such as overall system-level performance and specific specialist needs.
Another crucial element of offering a completely SoC-optimized remedy is the ability to make use of the entire environment of market skills, from EDA and style alternatives associates to services of IP. FinFET technological advancement comes with new issues, especially for the style group. GLOBALFOUNDRIES' procedure R&D and technological advancement architecture groups have been working carefully with both inner style groups as well as style environment associates to co-optimize the technological advancement and style surroundings.
GLOBALFOUNDRIES lately declared a new multi-year contract with ARM to mutually provide optimized SoC alternatives for ARM processor processor styles on FinFET procedure technology. The companies have been working together for several decades to mutually boost ARM Cortex™-A sequence processor processor snacks, and this contract expands the prior initiatives by generating growth IP systems that will enhance fast migration to three-dimensional FinFET transistor technological advancement.
"In the growing era of excessive flexibility, FinFET technological advancement will be a crucial enabler to the next creation of intelligent cell phone gadgets," said Dipesh Patel, deputy gm of the Physical IP Department at ARM. "Through our early involvement and co-optimization with GLOBALFOUNDRIES, we will provide our common clients with a new stage of program performance and an easier direction to the advantages from FinFET technological advancement. The result will be a foundation which is well-suited for SoCs depending on the next creation of ARM processor processor snacks and GPUs for the mobile market."