21 September 2012
Globalfoundries unveils 14nm finfet process
Globalfoundries has set its sights on technology leadership with the announcement that it plans to offer a 14nm process featuring finfets in 2014. The move would see it moving ahead of many of its rivals in offering such technology. It says development of the process is already underway at its facility in the US, with the first tape outs expected next year.
The process, called 14nm-XM, will be targeted at SoCs being designed for mobile products. The XM – or extreme mobility – process is said by the company to offer an improvement in battery life of up to 60% over 20nm based products.
"We have more than a decade of FinFET R&D to build on as we prepare to bring this technology to production," said Gregg Bartlett, chief technology officer. "We are confident this foundation will enable us to lead the foundry volume ramp of FinFETs, just as we did with high K metal gate (HKMG)."
According to the company, the 14nm-XM process is based on a modular architecture in which a 14nm finfet is combined with elements of its 20nm-LPM process. In this way, it says customers will see a smooth transition.
Globalfoundries says it has developed a 'cost effective and power optimised' finfet technology suited for the mobile SoC market. The architecture balances performance and power consumption, while minimising die size.
The announcement comes on the back of a recent agreement with ARM to jointly deliver SoC solutions for ARM processor designs on FinFET process technologies.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Supporting Information
Websites
http://www.globalfoundries.com
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