Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[kpf]

wbmw

They released a 2.6GHz 130nm Athlon 64-FX, didn't they?

I thought 130nm topped out at 2,4GHz (?)

Nevermind. 130nm was actually not all that impressive. They had working Silicon in 2001 already, then launched in spring 03 parts between 1,4 and 1,8 GHz, and topped out 18 months later at 2,4 GHz, while working down power envelopes as well. I would not be overly impressed about binsplit scaling of their 90nm node as either, wouldn't it be for the fact they work down power envelopes simultaneously at the pace I see it happening.

Wrt to one-time power gains from their 90nm process, I agree on it for their first 90nm Winchester-Cores. But I see considerable continous (not-one-time!) improvements beyond these over the last year as well. I believe the ability for extend learning over the pilot-mode into volume manufacturing is indeed something APM makes a difference for. Maybe not the only one, though: Another contributing factor in this respect is engineering ressorces: Fab30 was operated pretty much as a foundry within its first four years of operation when it had two architectures and several lithograpies in this fab and needed to migrate nodes while maintaining volume production. As soon as the fab is fully migrated to 90nm, processing only three lithographies in one node and no migration to come, the concentration of process-engineering is certainly beneficial for the remaining processes.

K.