AMD: At 45 nm and beyond ICs require high level HW/SW tools

By Anne-Francoise Pele, Courtesy of EE Times
May 4 2006 (5:52 AM)

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is anticipating system design requirements at the 45-nm node and beyond. The chip maker sees a need to work at higher levels of abstraction; creating a design file that generates both the software and the hardware.

One key to enabling such a revolution in design is the fact that much of electronics will be based on digital media and streaming content.

First enabled by computers, digital content is now starting to shape industrialized society and wash back to reshape electronic equipment and processors, according to Robert Ober, AMD fellow and executive at the company’s Office of Strategy and Technology.

"Digital content is king," said Ober in a presentation at the Future Horizons Electronics Forum here. He cited broadband and ubiquitous connectivity as supporting evidence. The next quesiton is how the semiconductor industry should react and what changes are required as it moves towards the 45-nm manufacturing node?