0.25-micron race begins

Electronic News, April 21, 1997 by Jim DeTar, Crista Hardie

Reflecting the changing nature of the computer systems market, Intel's first 0.25-micron chip, the Pentium with MMX for Mobile market, which is due out in 2H97, will mark the first time Intel has targeted the mobile market rather than the desktop segment with the lead product in a new technology generation. Robert Jecmen, Intel VP and director for California technology and manufacturing, commented, "We plan to introduce the 0.25-micron Pentium specifically for the mobile market."

Intel is not the only one touting its 0.25-micron technology, however, as NEC said it has opened a new LSI large-scale IC plant in Hiroshima that, like Intel's P856 0.25-micron process, is expected to come on line by the end of this year.

In fact, NEC boasted that "Although the new plant represents the leading edge of current semiconductor manufacturing capability, NEC announces today that it will make a further 15 billion yen (approximately $120 million) investment this year to take the plant to next-generation 0.25-micron process technology. NEC Hiroshima will thus be the first plant in the world to mass-produce semiconductors using 0.25-micron process technology." NEC's claims fly in the face of statements by Intel last week, however, that it has already begun broad sampling of its first-generation 0.25-micron product, and expects to be shipping hundreds of thousands of units by 2H97 and millions per quarter by the end of 1997.

Intel's Roadmap

Intel also released a 0.25-micron roadmap that puts P856 0.25-micron production by the end of 1997 at about 5 percent of total production. If Intel ships 60 million microprocessors in the coming year--in line with some analysts' projections--it would ship 3 million units of its 0.25-micron products by the end of this year. By the end of 1998, Intel expects that P856 will account for nearly 45 percent of production and, in 1999, the 0.25-micron process will constitute the bulk of the company's production, with 0.18-micron making up about 10 percent of volume.

Joyce Putscher, senior analyst, micrologic, for market research firm In-Stat, commented on Intel's plans to target the mobile market with its first 0.25-micron process product. "Due to going to 0.25-micron process, it makes sense. It's going to be lower power and you will need that for the mobile market. For mobile handheld units that's of primary importance; going to smaller design rule will definitely help in getting the power down."

Ms. Putscher noted, however, that "200MHz is quite high for the mobile market, but the market will probably catch up quickly. For a high-end mobile product that's feasible. You're not going to target a 200MHz device though for a handheld data collection unit--that would be overkill."

Intel's first 0.25-micron devices will be offered at operating frequency speeds in excess of 200MHz and they will also be the first sub-2-volt processors for Intel--they are specified at the 1.8V level. Following the mobile version, Intel will introduce its first 0.25-micron desktop Pentium, the P856 version of the forthcoming Pentium II.

"We expect Pentium II (on 0.25-micron) sometime around the end of the year," Mr. Jecmen said. Intel is expected to introduce the Pentium II on May 6 in a worldwide rollout.

400MHz Target

The P856 process will eventually enable Intel to reach operating frequencies of greater than 400MHz before the company moves on to the next technology generation, 0.18-micron, with its planned Merced processor, a combination x86/PA-RISC MPU currently in development with Hewlett-Packard.

Intel has already broadly sampled the 0.25-micron Pentium Processor with MMX Technology for Mobile systems to OEMs and fab production loading has begun at the company's D2 factory here, according to Mr. Jecmen. When asked whether this transition will cause much disruption to Intel's manufacturing facilities, and what it will require in terms of new equipment, Mr. Jecmen replied that there would be a slight disruption for the changeover.

New Equipment Needed

"It will take a couple of months to take the machines down and retool and bring them back up. We will be able to use most of the steppers we have now, but we will need some new equipment." He added that the company's newer plants "will be able to support 0.18-micron," when that switchover starts to take place in 1999.

Intel's P856 process will be a five-layer-metal process with a minimum feature size of less than 0.25-micron, "primarily poly-gate transistors," Mr. Jecmen said. It will utilize 20 masking layers.

The added masking layers will likely cause a 10-15 percent increase in wafer cost for the 0.25-micron devices "at the most," Mr. Jecmen said, but that increase will be offset by higher yields from the wafers resulting from the number of die increasing per wafer while the number of defects will presumably remain the same, thereby increasing the ratio of known good die to defective die.

"The P856 will be twice as dense as the P854 (Intel's 0.35-micron process), with both cache and logic more than doubled," over the 0.35-micron process, Mr. Jecmen noted. "Non-cache logic will be greater than 60,000 transistors per square millimeter and SRAM cell size will be 10.26 millimeters square," or six transistors.