What is "process type"?

[(cf)Eclipse]

just for kicks, why doesn't intel have SOI yet?

 

[mikelz85]

just for kicks, why doesn't intel have SOI yet?

perhaps IBM has a solid (legal) lock on the intellectual property, and thus it can't be stolen? This is of course how Scali was implying AMD got some of their 90nm info, and while I certainly wouldn't put it past anyone in the business (more common than not), but I doubt the info is as free flowing as some have made it out to be.

 

[Scali]

just for kicks, why doesn't intel have SOI yet?

I recall that they couldn't integrate it with their current process. Clashing technologies.

 

[Scali]

This is of course how Scali was implying AMD got some of their 90nm info

No, I didn't imply stealing or any illegal activity.

 

[FreiDOg]

You take things too literally.
Obviously Intel never officially disclosed anything to AMD.
But a lot of info has leaked out into the press, and who knows how much info leaked out to AMD. And I'm sure AMD got its hands on some of Intels Engineering Samples, and examined them closely.
Obviously AMD isn't going to tell anyone exactly how much they know about Intel either.
And actually it's more IBM than AMD anyway.
But do you really think that it's coincidence eg that Intel develops Strained Silicon, and IBM/AMD come up with their own version only a few months later?

IBM has SRAMs out of Strained Silicon dating back to atleast 2002, maybe before.
The basic concept of SS dates back to the early 90's in the acedemic world.
These early processes are generaly pretty well protected as to not give competitors much insight on the work.
Obviously IBM didn't wake up one morning and see Intel has SS in prescott and build their own cheap knock off for G5.
I seriously doubt Intel would let IBM know enough about their strained silicon process to have IBM shadow the developement for 2-3 years.

Major process nodes come around fairly regularly, IBM and intel both needed to scale their respective desktop chips, and they were under a fair amount of pressure to do it now. It really shouldn't be a surprise that they pushed a none too new idea into both of their 90nm processes.

 

[Scali]

The basic concept of SS dates back to the early 90's in the acedemic world.

Yes, as us academics know, some ideas are available years, decades, before they can actually be applied in practice, and on a large enough scale to be of any use.

Especially in my field, computer graphics, it's very apparent. Pretty much all of the rendering theory, algorithms etc date from the 1970s, but until recently, we didn't have the means to actually make use of it in realtime. The games industry gave this a huge push.

 

[visaris]

just for kicks, why doesn't intel have SOI yet?

SOI wafers from soitech (the main provider from only a handful of companies that sell SOI wafers) cost about $1000 per 300mm wafer. Normal wafers which are sold by many manufacturers sell for around $300 per 300mm wafer. I'm not sure what the better choice is here: expensive and quality or cheap and adaquate.

Though, if you look at the performace/price of both Intel and AMD chips, they are both at least in the same ballpark. I find this interesting considering both AMD's fab capacity and the fact that AMD's wafers cost them 3x as much. I'm constantly impressed with AMD's ability to be competitive, and I'm quite confident that without AMD's competition (and assuming no other company stepped up to fill their shoes) Intel would simply screw us all.