Toshiba CEO Comments on SOI
Kenji Tsuda, Asia Contributing Editor -- Semiconductor International, 1/9/2008
Toshiba Corp. (Tokyo) may modify the Cell processor to Toshiba’s bulk CMOS process, moving away from the silicon on insulator (SOI) process, said Atsutoshi Nishida, Toshiba president and CEO.
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| Atsutoshi Nishida, CEO, Toshiba Corp. |
Nishida was asked to comment on Toshiba’s SOI plans at an annual new year’s party earlier this week in Tokyo, a mammoth affair organized by the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA).
Last year, Toshiba decided to acquire Sony’s semiconductor production facility in Nagasaki, Japan, where a portion of the Cell Broadband Engine chips used in the Playstation3 systems have been produced on SOI wafers. The eight-core Cell BE chip is made with an SOI-based process, but Toshiba has no production experience using SOI wafers.
“After the actual acquisition [of the Nagasaki fab], we will decide whether we select SOI or bulk CMOS. Although the Cell devices are produced with SOI wafers, we will not stick to SOI wafers,” Nishida said.
Last month, Toshiba announced an agreement with IBM Corp. for co-development of a 32 nm bulk CMOS process as part of the Fishkill process development alliance. However, Toshiba and Sony have dropped participation in an earlier alliance, named ASTA, aimed at SOI process development. That Fishkill, N.Y.-based SOI effort now includes Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Freescale Semiconductor Inc. (Austin, Texas) and IBM (Armonk, N.Y.).
If Toshiba were to manufacture the Cell processor on an SOI-based process, Toshiba engineers would need to develop an SOI process designed for the Cell processor, which would involve committing engineering resources and new investments, a Toshiba spokesman said.
On the plus side, acquisition of Sony’s Nagasaki production facility will allow Toshiba to expand its product portfolio related to the Cell Broadband Engine chipset, the spokesman said. Toshiba plans to target the Cell processor to Toshiba’s bulk CMOS process. In October 2007, the company announced its Cell-based SpursEngine processor, which integrates four of the Cell cores. The SpursEngine, combined with power management and interface ICs, will be sold to customers, including those outside of Toshiba, for graphics applications such as face recognition. The SpursEngine product will be made with a bulk CMOS process, the spokesman said.
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