Rambus and GLOBAL FOUNDRIES Receive Favorable Results for 28nm Silicon Test Chips

By Will SoutterJul 26 2012

Global Foundries and technology licensing company, Rambus have collaborated on numerous 28 nm super low power (28 nm SLP) test chips that incorporate Global Foundries 28 nm-SLP process and Rambus’ core memory architecture for server and mobile based applications.

The two companies announced the results on the performance of two such silicon test chips with one demonstrating solutions for computer main memory applications like servers and the other demonstrating solutions for memory applications of mobile devices like tablets and smart phones. The two chips appear to have exceeded expectations on the power and performance aspects.

Sharon Holt, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Rambus’ Semiconductor Buisness Group stated that the collaboration with Global Foundries was vital to the company’s commitment to innovation and that the 28 nm-SLP process was best suited for accomplishing multi-gigahertz data rates at unrivaled power efficiencies. Rambus’ memory architectures are designed to fulfill rising performance requirements coupled with power efficiency of future devices such as high definition video streaming, coding and capture and 3D video games. The popularity of such applications fuels the need for new generation dynamic random access memory (DRAM) technologies. Global Foundries’ 28 nm-SLP process employs bulk CMOS substrates of silicon and applies the Gate-First approach to High-k Metal Gate (HkMG). It is ideal for smart mobile devices with smaller sized features, faster processing speeds, improved battery life and reduced standby power.