28nm ARM Cortex A9 processors in 2H 2010

GLOBALFOUNDRIES and ARM have unveiled new details on their leading-edge System-on-Chip (SoC) platform technology for powering the next generation of wireless products and applications. The new chip manufacturing platform is projected to enable a 40 percent increase in computing performance, a 30 percent decrease in power consumption, and a 100 percent increase in standby battery life.

The new platform includes collaboration on two GLOBALFOUNDRIES process variants: 28nm super low power (SLP) for mobile and consumer applications and 28nm high performance (HP) for applications requiring maximum performance.

The ARM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES SoC platform is based on the ARM Cortex- A9 processor, optimized ARM physical IP and GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ 28nm Gate-First High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) process. Together, ARM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES will enable manufacturers of embedded devices such as smartphones, smartbooks, tablets and more to address increasing design and manufacturing complexities while reducing time to volume production at mature yields.

As the market for “smart” mobile products continues to accelerate there is a clear need for increased performance to enable continued innovation in mobile applications. GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ 28nm process with Gate-First HKMG technology provides significant performance gains over the previous generation 40/45nm technologies. Current estimates show 28nm with HKMG will provide approximately 40 percent higher performance within the same thermal envelope, delivering improved application performance and enriched multi-tasking capabilities on mobile devices. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is well positioned to bring this technology to market rapidly while offering customers the benefits of the widely adopted Gate-First approach to HKMG. The Gate-First approach enjoys broad industry support from many of the world’s largest IDMs and fabless design companies.

Also, improvements in power efficiency are necessary with each new technology generation to deliver longer talk/standby time, multimedia playback and interactive gaming and graphics. The combined benefits of ARM IP and GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm HKMG process enables up to a 30 percent reduction of power consumption and 100 percent increase in standby battery life compared to 40/45nm.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES expects to start production on these next-generation technologies in 2H 2010 at Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany.