AMD, Qimonda partner on 32nm CMOS simulation

Microprocessor maker AMD and memory chip vendor Qimonda have launched a joint chip simulation project for 32nm CMOSand beyond.

The program, dubbed SIMKON, aims at simulation at a very early stage in the design cycle. Thus, the companies, which both maintain production sites and mask-making facilities in Dresden, Germany, hope to achieve significant benefits in terms of design time and cost during the design and test cycles of new chip generations. The simulation program includes modeling and simulation at the physical level and refers to materials, architectures and manufacturing processes.

With the simulations, the companies intend to define and optimize nanometerproduction processes in advance. AMD will use the simulation results to optimize its CMOS transistor architectures for the 32nm node and beyond. Qimonda is working in a similar direction and plans to achieve extremely planar wafer surfaces as a precondition for the manufacturing of DRAMchips with these extremely small geometries.

In addition to AMD and Qimonda, nine universities and researchinstitutes participate in the project, which in part is funded by the German Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) as a part of its IKT2020 research program. The ministry will spend about $12.3 million for the project.