Singapore's Chartered, South Korea's Samsung Electronics and IBM of the United States expect to begin commercial production of next-generation 45-nanometre electronic chips by end of 2007, the companies said in a joint release on Tuesday.
These chips, which will be used in advanced communications applications, were designed jointly by Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, International Business Machines Corp and Germany's Infineon Technologies Inc.
The gap between transistors on a chip is measured in nanometres, or billionths of a metre. The smaller the gap, the more powerful the chip, as more transistors can be packed on. Such high-performance chips also command better prices.
"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, president of Infineon's Communication Solutions business, in a statement.
Chartered derived about 22 percent of its sales from chips that are 90 nanometres and below in the April-June quarter, compared with zero contribution in the year-earlier period. These 45-nanometre chips will be produced at the advanced 300-millimetre wafer fabrication plants of Chartered, IBM and Samsung at the end of next year, the firms said.
Comments
Comments are closed.