AMD, Qimonda Collaborate On 32nm Technology

Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) and memory chip vendor Qimonda will collaborate on a chip simulation project for 32nm CMOS and beyond. The project—named SIMKON—will simulate combinations of materials, architectures and processes at an early stage in the design cycle. The work will be done in Dresden, Germany, and the companies expect the technology to be in practice by 2012. AMD plans to use the technology to optimize its CMOS transistor architectures, while Qimonda is aiming for planar wafer surfaces that will enable the manufacture of DRAM chips with small geometries. Nine universities will participate in the project, and the German Ministry of Research and Education will fund about $12 million of it.