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sgolds

04/15/04 4:55 PM

#31634 RE: rupert #31624

rupert, that is true, AMD is getting a lot of benefit from coordinating with IBM. (It goes both ways as AMD is also a keeper of occult processing knowlege.)

That said, each generation gets harder than the one before. Also, power benefits no longer are guaranteed on a shrink - we see just the opposite on Intel's 90nm. For at least thirty years the history has been one of happy shrinks following Moore's Law. Then things started getting hard. The costs of state-of-the-art fabs is crippling to many companies, so very few are still in the game. Intel, AMD, IBM, TSM, UMC and a few memory companies.

I am not convinced we will actually see a practical shrink beyond 65nm. There are plans for 45nm, but we may be reaching the practical limits of smallness.