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Technology Stocks : Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates -- VSEA

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From: etchmeister10/8/2009 1:31:20 PM
   of 1929
 
Stupid me - well better "late" than never

Now who else is working closely with Soitec?
Varian is going to ride this one - Mr. Market is just too slow.

ARM reports 45-nm SOI test chip with 40% power-saving

Peter Clarke
EE Times
(10/08/2009 5:48 AM EDT)

LONDON — Researchers from processor IP licensor ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England) have reported on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) 45-nm test chip that demonstrates potential power savings of up to 40 percent over traditional bulk process for manufacturing chips at the same geometry. The findings were presented at the IEEE SOI Conference in Foster City, California.

ARM and SOI wafer provider Soitec SA (Grenoble, France) collaborated to produce the test chip to demonstrate the power savings in a real silicon implementation with a well-known, industry-standard core. The design was implemented using ARM and IBM standard SOI libraries and leading EDA tools. The IP ecosystem and manufacturing solutions are in place for design starts with ARM and IBM libraries on IBM 45-nm SOI technology.

The test chip was based on an ARM 1176 processor and enables a direct comparison between SOI and bulk microprocessor implementations. The results confirm SOI technology is a viable alternative to traditional bulk process technology when designing low-power processors for high-performance consumer devices and mobile applications, ARM said.

ARM and Soitec collaborated to produce a test chip to demonstrate the power savings in a real silicon implementation with a well-known, industry-standard core. The goal was to produce a comparison of 45-nm SOI high-performance technology with bulk CMOS 45-nm low-power technology of the same product.

The results show that 45-nm high-performance SOI technology can provide up to 40 percent power savings and a 7 percent circuit area reduction compared to bulk CMOS low-power technology, operating at the same speed. This same implementation also demonstrated 20 percent higher operating frequency capability over bulk while saving 30 percent in total power in specific test applications.

"This benchmark by ARM and Soitec clearly demonstrates the potential power/performance benefits of our sixth-generation 45-nm SOI technology now available to both ASIC and foundry clients," said Mark Ireland, vice president of semiconductor products and services at IBM, in a statement issued by ARM. "Validating the power advantage of SOI with an industry-standard ARM processor demonstrates the possibilities for SOI adoption in the digital consumer electronics segment."

"This is a significant step for the industry, as the collaborative efforts of SOI Consortium member companies have produced a proof-point that the energy efficiency of SOI technology could cover battery operated applications," said Horacio Mendez, executive director of the SOI Industry Consortium, in the same statement.

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