Intel to describe functional blocks to enable 4.5- and 6-GHz processors

Intel to describe functional blocks to enable 4.5- and 6-GHz processors
By Semiconductor Business News
June 10, 2002 (5:25 a.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020609S0003

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- During the VLSI Circuit Symposium event in Hawaii this week, Intel Corp. will describe some new breakthroughs for next-generation ICs, including some functional blocks to enable 4.5- and 6-GHz microprocessors.

In various papers at the event, Intel will describe the development of new, high-speed caches and address generator units for future processors. The company will present details on new, low-power technologies, such as forward body bias. And it will also address the new and emerging problem in chip designs: soft error rates.

It will take a combination of new technologies to meet the requirements for future processors, said Shekhar Borkar, an Intel Fellow within the company's R&D arm, Intel Labs. "The biggest challenge is power reduction," Borkar said. "But there is no single silver bullet," he told SBN.

At present, Intel is shipping chips, based on its new, 0.13-micron process technology. It is expected to roll out 90-nm chips by 2003 and 65-nm designs in 2005, according to Intel's roadmap.

By the end of this decade, the company is also expected to develop and ship processors that run at speeds from 10-to-20-GHz. But to enable these high-speed chips, Intel is scrambling to address a major issue: power consumption.

If processors continue to use conventional transistors, then future devices could one day dissipate as much power as a nuclear plant--or even the sun's surface, according to Intel.

In response, Intel has been devising some new and key transistor-level technologies to reduce power consumption. The company is working on what it calls the TeraHertz transistor, which marks the company's initial use of high-k dielectrics, epitaxial wafers, and a real shocker--silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology.

Intel is also embracing what it calls forward and reverse body bias technology in chip designs. Forward bias enables a 23% reduction in active power in chip designs, while reverse bias cuts stand-by leakage by three-and-a-half times over current technologies, according to Intel.

This week, Intel will also move to push the speeds in future chip designs. For example, the company will present a paper that describes a 4.5-GHz address generator unit with a 32-bit sparse-tree adder core. This functional block is based on 0.13-micron technology.

It will also describe a 5-GHz integer core, with a dual-supply clocking function, based on 0.13-micron technology. The company will also describe a 6-GHz , 16-KB Level One cache, based on 90-nm technology.