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Dallas, Texas — John G. Spooner of ZDNet News has reported that Intel Corp. has divulged some of the secrets behind its next-generation 0.13-micron manufacturing process. The chip maker claims to be first to finalize 0.13-micron manufacturing plans, having already passed two critical milestones: It has created static RAM chips and, more recently, samples of Pentium III chips based on the new 0.13-micron process.

Reiterating its plans for the new process, dubbed P860, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) indicated it was on track to introduce 0.13-micron manufacturing during the first half of 2001. The 0.13 micron refers to the smallest feature inside the chip. A micron is one-millionth of a meter.

The transition to a new manufacturing process, known as a “process shrink,” allows for clock speed and performance increases, together with reductions in power consumption.

The combination of new features “will produce smaller, cheaper, and higher-performing microprocessors,” said Mark Bohr, director of processor architecture and integration for Intel’s Technology and Manufacturing Group.

Faster, more efficient

P860’s design rules will produce transistors small enough to pack more than 100 million transistors into a single chip, according to Bohr. Transistor speeds will increase 50 to 60 percent while consuming about 20 percent less power than P858 transistors, he said.

The 0.13 process will use smaller, faster transistors; copper interconnects; and low-capacitance dielectric materials. Intel’s current P858 manufacturing process uses aluminum interconnects, the metal wires that connect transistors.

The new P860 copper interconnects and low-capacitance dielectrics will reduce resistance by up to 40 percent, helping to isolate and reduce drag on electrical signals.

The transistors will operate at 1.3 volts or less, compared to the P858’s 1.5 volts.

Better price, too

“This is important to achieve low-power operation, especially in mobile applications,” Bohr said, adding that P860 will allow Intel to produce lower-power chips that operate at one volt or less.

Where performance gains are realized, process shrinks can help reduce manufacturing costs over time. Because process shrinks also reduce the size of a chip, a chipmaker can produce more chips from a single wafer, which decreases its manufacturing costs per chip. The lower prices are usually passed on to the customer.

It’s likely that the first 0.13-micron chips will be mobile Pentium III chips, code-named Tualatin. As previously reported by ZDNet News, the first mobile Tualatin Pentium IIIs will be 933MHz and 1GHz chips. They are scheduled for introduction in the second quarter of next year.

Gradual phase-in

Intel, which plans to adapt the 0.13-micron process at nine fabrication plants by the end of 2003, is shooting to begin with its Fab 20 plant in Hillsboro, Ore., in the first quarter of 2001.

Fabs 22 and D2 are scheduled to start using the new process in the third quarter of next year; Fabs 17 and 24 are planned for the fourth quarter. The company said it would be able to re-use about 70 percent of the equipment in its fabrication plants.

Intel also plans to begin manufacturing chips on larger 300-millimeter wafers in the first quarter of 2002, beginning with is new Fab D1C. The 12-inch wide wafers should yield about 2.25 times more chips than the current 200-millimeter or 8-inch wafers used by Intel, the company has said.

Intel analysts were cool to Tuesday’s 0.13 announcement. The company “just wanted to remind everyone that they’re here at 0.13 micron,” said Mike Feibus, principal at Mercury Research.

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