IBM, Chartered, Infineon and Samsung announced first silicon-functional circuits and the availability of design kits based on their collaboration for 45nm low-power process technology.

The early characterization of key design elements in silicon, coupled with the availability of early design kits, provide designers with a significant head start in moving to the latest process from the industry-leading CMOS technology research and development alliance.

The first working circuits in 45nm technology, targeted at next-generation communication systems, were proven in silicon using the process technology jointly developed by the alliance partners and were produced at the IBM 300-millimeter (mm) fabrication line in East Fishkill, NY, where the joint development team is based. Among the successfully verified blocks are standard library cells and I/O elements provided by Infineon, as well as embedded memory developed by the alliance. Infineon has included special circuitry on the first 300mm wafers to debug the complex process and to gain experience in product architecture interactions.

“The first structures in 45nm represent our most cutting-edge technology, bringing together high-performance capabilities and low-power consumption. This solution is clearly well-suited to address the needs of next-generation mobile applications,” said Hermann Eul, member of the board of Infineon Technologies and president of its Communication Solutions business group.

The development of the design kits incorporates design expertise from all four companies in order to facilitate earlier transition to the new process by chip customer designers. The 45nm low-power process is expected to be installed and fully qualified at Chartered, IBM and Samsung 300mm fabs by the end of 2007.

“Our early hardware results indicate that the 45nm node device performance is at least 30 percent greater than that of the 65nm node, and that product developers can design to this process with confidence,” said Lisa Su, vice president of semiconductor research and development at IBM and the head of the joint development alliance.