TSMC Helps LSI Reduce Leakage 25 Percent on Next Generation Product
January 06 2010 - 2:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
PowerTrim gate length biasing optimizes power with no area or
performance compromise HSINCHU, Taiwan, Jan. 6
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Company, Ltd. (TSMC) (TWSE: 2330, NYSE: TSM) today announced that
LSI Corporation achieved over 25% overall leakage reduction in a
next generation product by implementing TSMC's PowerTrim power
optimization technology on the company's 65nm low power (LP)
process. PowerTrim is a first-of-its-kind technology that blends a
layer of design technology with advanced semiconductor processing
to optimize a design's power leakage. Tela Innovations provides the
patented PowerTrim technology and services under an exclusive
license to TSMC. PowerTrim software analyzed the LSI design and
substituted cells with small increases in gate length on
non-critical timing paths. These small changes make a significant
impact since increasing gate length exponentially reduces leakage
current. "Low power consumption and high performance are key to the
success of our products," said Norm Lawrence, director of Product
and Test Engineering, Networking Components Division at LSI
Corporation. "Working closely with TSMC and Tela Innovations,
PowerTrim helped us reduce leakage power by over 25% while
improving our yield distribution for leakage." PowerTrim performs
speed/power tradeoffs using a CD biasing technique that analyzes
designs and intelligently applies gate length biases to the
appropriate cells (i.e. non-critical paths possessing sufficient
timing "slack"). The technology optimizes transistors along these
paths without reducing chip performance. The gate CD biases are
implemented as part of the Optical Proximity Correction (OPC) flow.
The process does not impact cell footprint or chip area. The result
is significant leakage power reduction while maintaining chip
performance and area. PowerTrim also significantly reduces leakage
power variability resulting in improved parametric yield. "Enabling
our customers to improve important product features like power
consumption is one of the key objectives of TSMC's Open Innovation
Platform(TM) initiative," said ST Juang, senior director of Design
Infrastructure Marketing at TSMC. "Collaborating with innovative
companies like Tela Innovations to provide an Open Innovation(TM)
program creates differentiated value that is the central vision
behind this initiative. We are quite pleased with the results that
LSI achieved and are encouraged by their decision to deploy
PowerTrim." The PowerTrim service is implemented in conjunction
with other leakage reduction techniques such as multi-Vt cell
libraries, reverse body biasing, header/footer sleep switches, and
voltage islands. It provides additional leakage improvements and is
more efficient in terms of leakage reduction per unit of slack than
high-Vt transistors. Availability PowerTrim is available directly
from TSMC for advanced process technologies including 90nm, 80nm,
65nm, 55nm, and 40nm process nodes. Tela's technology is
exclusively embedded in PowerTrim. Contact TSMC account management
for more information. About TSMC TSMC is the world's largest
dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry's leading
process technology and the foundry's largest portfolio of
process-proven libraries, IP, design tools and reference flows. The
Company's total managed capacity in 2009 exceeded 10 million 8-inch
equivalent wafers, including capacity from two advanced 12-inch -
GigaFabs(TM), four eight-inch fabs, one six-inch fab, as well as
TSMC's wholly owned subsidiaries, WaferTech and TSMC (China), and
its joint venture fab, SSMC. TSMC is the first foundry to provide
40nm production capabilities. Its corporate headquarters are in
Hsinchu, Taiwan. For more information about TSMC please visit
http://www.tsmc.com/. DATASOURCE: TSMC CONTACT: Ferda Mehmet of
A&R Edelman, +1-650-762-2946, mobile, +1-415-308-7877 for TSMC;
or Michael Kramer, Corporate Public Relations of TSMC,
886-3-5636688 ext: 7126216 Web Site: http://www.tsmc.com/
Copyright