AMD, IBM Team Up On Technology To Give Transistor Speed A Boost

The two companies, in a statement in advance of last week's IEEE International Electron Devices meeting in San Francisco, called the technology a "breakthrough process" that will speed transistors by 24 percent—without increasing power levels.

The strained silicon technique will work jointly with IBM's silicon-on-insulator technology—a previous advancement from the Armonk, N.Y.-based company that also boosted performance.

AMD said that it plans to integrate the technology into all of its 90-nanometer platforms by the first half of next year, largely the same time that the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based manufacturer readies its first dual-core processors.

"I would guess the CPU that increases in speed but keeps the low heat will be a main factor" in the success of a new chip, said Oliver Poitrimol, IS director at Dynamic Advantage, a Rockville Centre, N.Y.-based system builder and solution provider.

Poitrimol said he has seen the performance-power war "going back and forth" between AMD and Intel for the past several years. The edge, he believes, is now going to AMD.

The announcement and technology from AMD and IBM will likely up the ante in the performance race with market-share leader Intel. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is also set to begin shipping dual-core chips next year and said it will use a sleeker, more efficient 65-nanometer manufacturing process that will boost processor performance. In addition, Intel produces its own chipsets, which will begin to provide supporting technology to enhance audio, graphics and digital applications as well as add more management functionality.

Intel's main rival on the desktop, AMD, has not yet said precisely when it will begin shifting from a 90-nanometer to a 65-nanometer manufacturing process. However, the collaboration between AMD and IBM also calls for them to jointly develop 65-nanometer and 45-nanometer chips.