Fans of New Chip-Making Style Hope to Step Out Soon
Manufacturers keep shrinking transistors and other tiny components on computer chips, to the point that some materials and processing techniques used for decades are no longer sufficient. Backers of one new approach believe they are positioned to make a difference.
An industry group that includes influential players like IBM and ARM Holdings on Thursday is talking up the progress of one particular production recipe. It is a variant of a technology called “silicon-on-insulator,” or SOI, which has been used by IBM and others such as Advanced Micro Devices to make chips that are mainly known for high performance.
The group, called the SOI Industry Consortium, says they now have data to back up a claim that the version called fully-depleted SOI can play a major role in a different sort of application altogether–portable, battery-powered devices where power consumption is paramount.
