First AMD 45-nm CPUs May Omit Novel HK+MG Transistors

In an interview with Reuters this morning, AMD's new senior vice president for technology development, Douglas Grose said that the new high-k-plus-metal-gate (HK+MG) transistor technology IBM unveiled two weeks ago might not be integrated with AMD's manufacturing process in time for its first 45-nm CPUs to be produced in 2008.

Saying the decision on when AMD will use its partner's technology depends on his assessment of AMD's roadmap, Grose explained that for now, that time appears to be "in the 45-nanometer timeframe or the 32 node application."

Last month, AMD executives gave indications to analysts, during the company's quarterly earnings call, that the 32 nm generation may be slated for the 2010 timeframe or even later.

Grose, whose hiring was announced just this morning, comes to AMD from IBM, where he was general manager of technology development and manufacturing. In 2002, when Grose was IBM's general manager for storage technology, he had been tapped as a senior executive of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, when IBM sold a majority of its hard drive interests to Hitachi. He later returned to the fold, only to leave IBM again for the opportunity to succeed AMD's retiring Daryl Ostrander.

Ostrander's and Grose's paths have crossed before, as Ostrander was responsible for negotiating a deal in late 2004 enabling Chartered Semiconductor to produce 90 nm processors on 300 mm wafers, using technology Chartered developed in cooperation with Grose's team at IBM. The first processors produced by Chartered for AMD were unveiled last July.

Today, Semiconductor Fabtech speculated that AMD may not be as burdened as Intel with respect to integrating HK+MG transistors into its fabrication processes. AMD's existing silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers, the publication writes, already utilize optimum processes that Intel would have to add to its designs in order for its next-generation Core processors to integrate better with smaller processors.