IBM-AMD Alliance
IBM TO HELP AMD ON FUTURE CHIPS
IBM will help Advanced Micro Devices develop future chip technologies, the companies announced Wednesday, an alliance that will better insulate AMD from the growing risks of making processors.
Under the deal, the two companies will develop semiconductor manufacturing technologies for 65-nanometer and 45-nanometer chips from AMD. The 65-nanometer chips will likely emerge in 2005, with 45-nanometer chips following in 2007. The nanometer measurement refers to the average size of features on a chip.
The deal is the latest in a series of ventures that is transforming the semiconductor industry from a collection of independent companies to groups of interlinked alliances.
The hundreds of millions of transistors that will be packed into chips coming out in the next few years will create a heat crisis. Transistors require energy, but pumping electricity into chips produces heat, which in turn can melt internal components and cause other problems. A substantial amount of energy also "leaks" out of these chips and never gets used.
Developing energy-conservation technology, however, isn't easy and requires extensive research and development facilities.
"What the industry is faced with is very significant capital costs, very high revenue requirements, and very basic changes in process technology," said Sumit Sadana, director of strategy for IBM Microelectronics, in an interview in December.
AMD's Bill Siegle, senior vice president, technology operations and the company's chief scientist, said Wednesday that by collaborating with IBM, "AMD can deliver industry-leading performance and functionality for our customers while reducing the rapidly escalating cost of technology development."
The IBM-AMD alliance will specifically concentrate on how to better incorporate energy-saving technologies, such as silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and "low-k dielectrics," into chips.
Integrating SOI has been a problem for AMD, according to analysts. The company was going to include SOI in an upcoming chip called Barton, but it removed the technology and delayed the chip. Until now, AMD was obtaining its SOI technology from Motorola. Motorola could not be reached for comment.
IBM, of course, will also benefit. The company rivals Intel in semiconductor research, but its chip sales are only one-eighth as large. Licensing its technology, and manufacturing chips for other companies, opens revenue streams for Big Blue. Late last year, IBM signed a joint manufacturing and technology licensing deal with Chartered Semiconductor, a foundry that makes chips for others.
IBM's services and technology don't come cheap, though. Companies typically hand over several million dollars--even hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on the deal--to IBM under these alliances, according to sources.
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So, what does this mean for the future of IBM-built processors for the Macintosh? What if anything will Apple gain from this alliance? I?d like to see IBM and AMD team to build some PowerPCs that will be comparable to the future chips from Intel. Banias, especially, worries me.
IBM will help Advanced Micro Devices develop future chip technologies, the companies announced Wednesday, an alliance that will better insulate AMD from the growing risks of making processors.
Under the deal, the two companies will develop semiconductor manufacturing technologies for 65-nanometer and 45-nanometer chips from AMD. The 65-nanometer chips will likely emerge in 2005, with 45-nanometer chips following in 2007. The nanometer measurement refers to the average size of features on a chip.
The deal is the latest in a series of ventures that is transforming the semiconductor industry from a collection of independent companies to groups of interlinked alliances.
The hundreds of millions of transistors that will be packed into chips coming out in the next few years will create a heat crisis. Transistors require energy, but pumping electricity into chips produces heat, which in turn can melt internal components and cause other problems. A substantial amount of energy also "leaks" out of these chips and never gets used.
Developing energy-conservation technology, however, isn't easy and requires extensive research and development facilities.
"What the industry is faced with is very significant capital costs, very high revenue requirements, and very basic changes in process technology," said Sumit Sadana, director of strategy for IBM Microelectronics, in an interview in December.
AMD's Bill Siegle, senior vice president, technology operations and the company's chief scientist, said Wednesday that by collaborating with IBM, "AMD can deliver industry-leading performance and functionality for our customers while reducing the rapidly escalating cost of technology development."
The IBM-AMD alliance will specifically concentrate on how to better incorporate energy-saving technologies, such as silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and "low-k dielectrics," into chips.
Integrating SOI has been a problem for AMD, according to analysts. The company was going to include SOI in an upcoming chip called Barton, but it removed the technology and delayed the chip. Until now, AMD was obtaining its SOI technology from Motorola. Motorola could not be reached for comment.
IBM, of course, will also benefit. The company rivals Intel in semiconductor research, but its chip sales are only one-eighth as large. Licensing its technology, and manufacturing chips for other companies, opens revenue streams for Big Blue. Late last year, IBM signed a joint manufacturing and technology licensing deal with Chartered Semiconductor, a foundry that makes chips for others.
IBM's services and technology don't come cheap, though. Companies typically hand over several million dollars--even hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on the deal--to IBM under these alliances, according to sources.
***
So, what does this mean for the future of IBM-built processors for the Macintosh? What if anything will Apple gain from this alliance? I?d like to see IBM and AMD team to build some PowerPCs that will be comparable to the future chips from Intel. Banias, especially, worries me.
Comments
If Apple is a customer, then they benefit from receiving outstanding research by the combined forces of the 2nd and 3rd best resources in today's chip resource. Which translates to new products that take adbantage of R&D.
Here is the news story from the register:
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/28784.html"; target="_blank">AMD/IBM share R&D</a>
Peace
Marcus
<strong>If it is true, it means Apple has it's PowerPC version of Intel. It's alliance makes it the 2nd and 3rd chip makers combine their resources to supply their customeres with the best service and technology.
If Apple is a customer, then they benefit from receiving outstanding research by the combined forces of the 2nd and 3rd best resources in today's chip resource. Which translates to new products that take adbantage of R&D.</strong><hr></blockquote>
It's definitely true I just got an email from IBM with the press release. Here's the link:
<a href="http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~65496,00.html"; target="_blank">IBM-AMD Press Release</a>
<strong>If it is true, it means Apple has it's PowerPC version of Intel.</strong><hr></blockquote>
No it doesn't.
<strong>Don't AMD and IBM compete? Especially now with the advent of the 970 and the Opteron? Sure, Intel is the kingpin, but the more successful this partnership is, the better AMD's chips are, and ultimately the stiffer the competition with the 970.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well, actually going hand in hand with AMD is a chance for IBM to get their own x86 chip supplier, becoming more independant in the Wintel market. The Hammer line of chips is supposed to be really nice and if IBM endorses AMD CPUs Intel is going to be in trouble.
I think IBM can make a AMD line of computers for the low end and a POWER line of hardware for the higher end. If the cooperate with AMD they will at all times be the first to have a rock-solid (next gen) Hammer solution and the competition wont be able to do anything about it. AMD on the other hand will get the recognition in the business world it deserves. I don't think the 970 and Opteron will really compete.
<strong>Don't AMD and IBM compete? Especially now with the advent of the 970 and the Opteron? Sure, Intel is the kingpin, but the more successful this partnership is, the better AMD's chips are, and ultimately the stiffer the competition with the 970.</strong><hr></blockquote>
AMD used to have a partnership with Motorola until they ran off with one of the Taiwan manufacturers whose name escapes me. This sort of thing is pretty common in high cost R&D areas (manufacturing process design R&D costs a substantial sum).
It's just a partnership for the R&D of new manufacturing processes to help alleviate costs. It means Intel pays out a sum on R&D all by its lonesome while AMD/IBM only pay a part each. Keeps expenditure down so they can better compete
Note this is only the manufacturing processes they are working on not chip design itself.
As for the hammer I would expect a few people will be a touch disappointed by it. It isn't quite as fast as it was once expected to be. That said it wouldn't surprise me if IBM released a low cost linux solution using it. They've always cared more about the support and service contracts than the hardware specifically. That's where the high margins in the server business tend to come from.
I don't think this has ANY implication of the desktop chip supplier. IBM abandoned what few resources it had for AMD workstations about 2 years ago (if i remember right). Remember, the division of IBM that produces the desktops probably doesn't work closely with their research and fab divisions.