Xilinx approaches 90-nanometre goal
Published: 01 Apr 2003 10:55 BST
Xilinx has 90-nanometre chips in hand.
The chipmaker said on Monday that it has begun shipping its first new 90-nanometre field programmable gate array (FPGA) chips in small quantities. Xilinx is one of the first few chipmakers to start down the road toward the chipmaking milestone -- mass production of the 90-nanometre chip.
Xilinx appears to be on track to mass producing the new programmable chips, which are often used in markets such as communications, where device standards aren't finalised yet. Programmable chips are more flexible than other chips -- such as purpose-built chips -- because companies can program them to do specific tasks.
Last December, the company and manufacturing partner IBM said it would ship test versions of the chip during the first quarter of 2003, and begin mass production in the second half of 2003.
Moving to a smaller nanometre chipmaking process -- such as from 130- to 90-nanometres as IBM is doing for Xilinx -- produces smaller transistors and that are closer together inside a chip. This in turn allows manufacturers to put more transistors on a chip, boosting performance. The nanometre measurement refers to the average size of features inside chips, such as transistors and the interconnects that link them. A distance of 90 nanometres is about a thousandth of the width of a human hair.
The move to 90 nanometres will help Xilinx offer a new line of smaller, less expensive FPGA chips, which will cost less than $25 when they are available to companies, such as network gear makers, in large quantities of 250,000 or more next year, the company said.
Xilinx will become the first 90-nanometre customer for IBM, which is Xilinx's main chip manufacturer.
The transition to a 90-nanometre process is a major undertaking for IBM, which spent about $2.5bn to build its newest manufacturing plant in New York. That plant is expected to begin turning out large volumes of 90-nanometre chips during the second half of 2003.
The company also uses United Microelectronics to produce its 90-nanometre chips.
Xilinx isn't the first chipmaker to make it to this stage. Intel unveiled its first 90-nanometre test chips in March 2002.
Intel is expected to deliver its first 90-nanometre Pentium chip for PCs, dubbed Prescott, during the second half of this year.
To find out more about the computers and hardware that these chips are being used in, see ZDNet UK's Hardware News Section.
Let the Chips Central editor know what you think by email. And sign up for the weekly Chips Central newsletter.
Did you find this article useful?
28 out of 80 people found this useful
- Share this article:
