Feb 23 2010
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a global leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced today that it has been selected by Xilinx as its foundry partner for 28nm high-k metal gate (HKMG) process technology manufacturing optimized for a balance of performance and power efficiency.
The advanced 28nm HKMG process technology of Samsung Electronics’ Foundry business (Samsung Foundry) enables Xilinx to implement a new generation of FPGAs that offer up to 50 percent lower power savings over devices built on the previous 45nm technology node. This announcement places the two companies at the cutting-edge of low-power logic technology, aimed at bringing Xilinx’s products manufactured by Samsung Foundry to the forefront of the FPGA market.
“We are pleased to extend our collaboration with Xilinx, which began at 45nm process technology last year with the successful Spartan-6 family, to our 28nm HKMG process technology for high-performance low-power devices,” said Jay Min, vice president, Samsung Electronics’ Foundry business. “This advanced process is being developed in Samsung’s S-Line which is equipped with advanced 28nm process tools and is the second generation of HKMG technology implemented in the fab.”
Compared to previous generation technologies, the HKMG technology enables continued performance improvements with transistor scaling while significantly reducing power consumption. Designed with a gate-first approach, Samsung Foundry’s cost-effective, breakthrough technology minimizes the use of restrictive design rules doubling the logic and SRAM density of 40nm processes.
“From the beginning, our strategy has been to work in concert with semiconductor manufacturing leaders such as Samsung Foundry to deliver the best value for our customers when moving to more advanced technology nodes,” said Victor Peng, senior vice president, Programmable Platform Development at Xilinx. “By optimizing our unified ASMBL™ architecture at the 28nm HKMG process technology, the collaborative effort with Samsung Foundry will play a critical role in enabling us to bring innovative, next-generation FPGA products to our target markets.”
Samsung Foundry provides advanced technology and manufacturing capacity to its foundry customers. Processes down to 45nm are in volume production and Samsung Foundry 28nm HKMG process is expected to be production-ready in the first half of 2011.
Source: http://www.samsung.com/in/