ARM and TSMC Trying to Develop the 20nm

Published:2011/11/21 1:08:00 Author:Li xiao na From:SeekIC

ARM and TSMC are trying to get A-15 out on a 20nm process. In order to handle the transition, the ARM process team has been set up in Taiwan. The 20nm tape-out is a test vehicle, and the expectation of ARM is that they are a year away from 20nm as a production technology. Nowadays, the interdependencies between process technology and the IP become more all the time, so they need to have the proven IP and to prove the design flows, to verify the RTL and make sure it all works well on 20nm.

ARM has opened a small design centre in Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park. Several professional guys get together. The number of guys grows from 8 to 12. Because of the higher leakage, some process transitions don’t deliver much in terms of increased performance in this age. TSMC’s 20nm may be able to deliver some surprisingly significant gains.

Compared with 28nm, the 20nm process is able to deliver a 25% improvement in power consumption, a 15-20% improvement in performance and a 1.9x increase in density. TSMC plans to introduce the first version of 20nm in the second half of 2012. TSMC are quite aggressive in pushing 20nm, they are accelerating 20nm development. people think TSMC are responding well in respect to 20nm and don’t think Intel are as advanced in 20nm compared to TSMC. Intel’s version of 20nm is finfet, but the advantage of finfet is small. It is stated that the 20nm finfet is similar with the depleted SOI. Don’t worry; FDSOI scaling is much better, short channel effect is much better than the finfet for a rotation of 90º.

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