During the week of June 16th, 2008 at the VLSI Technology Symposium, there were a lot of compelling papers presented. One in particular caught my attention because the findings had a very subtle underlying message. I’m referring to the Intel paper on floating body cell (FBC). The floating body cell is not new. Intel talked about a non-planar floating body cell in 2006. This year Intel touted a much smaller device using a planar design on SOI. The device could have 3-4x more bits per area. The benefit is faster computational rates.
It is well known that Intel does not currently use SOI for volume production. When considering the use of SOI for microprocessors, Intel has long claimed that its benefits diminished with each technology node shrink. The floating body cell announcement endorses the use of SOI but of course leaves a few openings for Intel to continue to walk a fine line around SOI. The buried oxide (BOX) thickness in Intel’s device is only 10nm compared to >100nm for many SOI uses. Intel feels that this technology is suitable for the 15nm node and beyond. IBM and ISS both have an SOI memory technology which they’ve shown as beneficial at 45nm and 32nm process technology.
One of Intel’s key statements is that FBC could “potentially be less costly” than embedded DRAM. Very few companies can reach the economies of scale in manufacturing that Intel and commodity memory vendors reach. Intel will continue to study the cost impact. The real message here is that all leading edge logic companies endorse SOI’s technology benefits.
-Joanne Itow
Monday, January 19, 2009
My Biggest Disappointment at CES, Yet Again, Came in 500ml Packages
And now ladies and gentlemen, something completely different from the self-congratulatory, back-slapping, post-CES euphoria flooding the airwaves. Oh yes, there was amazing technology, amazing innovation and a sense of hubris in light of the economy and hard times all around. Less bling, more practical solutions. I think I even got a door held open for me a time or two by someone I didn't have to tip, hehe.
The Intel booth was packed with enthusiastic techies and I met with over fifty of the best and brightest tech press in the world. Their knowledge and class always blows me away. We chatted Core i7, 45nm innovation, Atom, and Classmate PC. And as everybody at CES talked, we drank bottled water. Lots of it.
Bottled water which, when emptied, couldn't find a recycling bin for a hundred miles. Literally. Turns out the Las Vegas Convention Center "isn't set up for recycling", so off go hundreds of thousands of empty bottles to a landfill somewhere.
Or worse -- as a recent issue of the Economist writes about in depth - the ocean. Guess how much plastic is floating in the Pacific Ocean in huge masses? A few football fields worth? Try two swirling blobs totaling TWICE the size of the United States. Serious! I am always astonished at the monumental waste at CES. Not just empty water bottles but mountains of brochures, glitzy giveaways, disposable carpets and enough electricity use to power many small countries.
And yet almost all the exhibitors are companies "embracing sustainability," "going green." Exhibitors want to be seen as embracing the environment, so why not lean on the local convention authorities to embrace it too? A two-watt power saving in your glitzy gadget or fifteen more minutes of battery life is great, but I'd love to see technological innovation reach other areas in desperate need of greening.
Not all is doom and gloom of course. A highlight for me was meeting Anisha Ladha, Intel's e-waste Program Manager. Kudos to Intel for giving her primo CES booth space to talk about how we reclaim more than 3 billion gallons of wastewater each year in our factories.
Anisha is passionate, with an environmental engineering background and tons of experience at all levels. And months in advance of last year's show, she spent ergs trying to figure out who in show management could help make CES more environmentally friendly. She hit dead ends everywhere, with the fundamental issue being that "LVCC doesn't recycle." When she investigated offering reusable Intel branded beverage mugs she met with an even bigger quagmire of costs, rules, status quo and LVCC labor laws.
Imagine a "gentle nudge" program where attendees reused a water bottle and had it scanned at each meeting to collect a goodie at the end of the show? Maybe a collection of iTunes MP3s with "green" in the title (that's only slightly tongue-in-cheek), or a raffle for a more power efficient, sleek and light Centrino 2 notebook?
Let's not continue letting this convention be a study in "you can lead a CES gadgeteer to bottled water, but you can't make him (or her) recycle." Anisha, myself and several others I talked to last week are going to do our part to help make sure our respective companies walk the walk as well as talk the talk on green. Companies may make broad declarations on sustainability, but it is the employees themselves that must act to make words reality. Let's hope we have enough voices chime in to really unleash the "green"!
The Intel booth was packed with enthusiastic techies and I met with over fifty of the best and brightest tech press in the world. Their knowledge and class always blows me away. We chatted Core i7, 45nm innovation, Atom, and Classmate PC. And as everybody at CES talked, we drank bottled water. Lots of it.
Bottled water which, when emptied, couldn't find a recycling bin for a hundred miles. Literally. Turns out the Las Vegas Convention Center "isn't set up for recycling", so off go hundreds of thousands of empty bottles to a landfill somewhere.
Or worse -- as a recent issue of the Economist writes about in depth - the ocean. Guess how much plastic is floating in the Pacific Ocean in huge masses? A few football fields worth? Try two swirling blobs totaling TWICE the size of the United States. Serious! I am always astonished at the monumental waste at CES. Not just empty water bottles but mountains of brochures, glitzy giveaways, disposable carpets and enough electricity use to power many small countries.
And yet almost all the exhibitors are companies "embracing sustainability," "going green." Exhibitors want to be seen as embracing the environment, so why not lean on the local convention authorities to embrace it too? A two-watt power saving in your glitzy gadget or fifteen more minutes of battery life is great, but I'd love to see technological innovation reach other areas in desperate need of greening.
Not all is doom and gloom of course. A highlight for me was meeting Anisha Ladha, Intel's e-waste Program Manager. Kudos to Intel for giving her primo CES booth space to talk about how we reclaim more than 3 billion gallons of wastewater each year in our factories.
Anisha is passionate, with an environmental engineering background and tons of experience at all levels. And months in advance of last year's show, she spent ergs trying to figure out who in show management could help make CES more environmentally friendly. She hit dead ends everywhere, with the fundamental issue being that "LVCC doesn't recycle." When she investigated offering reusable Intel branded beverage mugs she met with an even bigger quagmire of costs, rules, status quo and LVCC labor laws.
Imagine a "gentle nudge" program where attendees reused a water bottle and had it scanned at each meeting to collect a goodie at the end of the show? Maybe a collection of iTunes MP3s with "green" in the title (that's only slightly tongue-in-cheek), or a raffle for a more power efficient, sleek and light Centrino 2 notebook?
Let's not continue letting this convention be a study in "you can lead a CES gadgeteer to bottled water, but you can't make him (or her) recycle." Anisha, myself and several others I talked to last week are going to do our part to help make sure our respective companies walk the walk as well as talk the talk on green. Companies may make broad declarations on sustainability, but it is the employees themselves that must act to make words reality. Let's hope we have enough voices chime in to really unleash the "green"!
UPDATED: 45 days and counting… to the magic of 45nm Hafnium
45 is an important number. In 45 BC Julius Caesar won a victory over the armies of Pompey and proclaimed himself the sole ruler of Rome. Some 2000 years later, in 1945 the allies won a victory over the Axis powers. Both victories signaled huge changes in the world and moved it forwards in a new direction.
Now in 45 days time, something will happen that is not as extraordinary as the deeds of Caesar and Churchill, but it certainly does have the power to change and move the world forward.
In 45 days, a new building called “Fab 32” tucked into a sleepy corner of Arizona will come to life. Inside this building a new type of device will be made in incredible numbers. These devices will be able to shop for groceries, analyze proteins, play computer games, model financial markets, allow you to chat to your aunt in Australia, design automobiles and search for aliens. And these devices will do so faster than ever before, cooler than ever before and better than ever before.
Now in 45 days time, something will happen that is not as extraordinary as the deeds of Caesar and Churchill, but it certainly does have the power to change and move the world forward.
In 45 days, a new building called “Fab 32” tucked into a sleepy corner of Arizona will come to life. Inside this building a new type of device will be made in incredible numbers. These devices will be able to shop for groceries, analyze proteins, play computer games, model financial markets, allow you to chat to your aunt in Australia, design automobiles and search for aliens. And these devices will do so faster than ever before, cooler than ever before and better than ever before.
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