AMD’s First Trinity Shipment
Today our friends over at AMD officially launched their second-generation A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), codenamed “Trinity.” Manufactured on our 32nm High-k Metal Gate (HKMG) process technology, the new chips are targeted at a variety of applications ranging from ultrathin notebooks to traditional desktops.
The new APUs have been greeted with many positive reviews highlighting their excellent performance-per-watt, strong battery life, and differentiated graphics capabilities—all of which are enabled in part by the close collaboration between GLOBALFOUNDRIES and AMD to deliver innovative silicon technology. “Trinity” is built on the same fab process as its predecessor “Llano,” a 32nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology that utilizes a number of innovations to maximize performance and minimize power consumption, such as strained silicon, embedded silicon germanium, dual stressed liner, and advanced interconnect materials.
But it’s the HKMG integration that sets this technology apart. We chose a Gate First approach to HKMG at the 32nm node because it provides a ~100% density increase, up to 40% increased speed, and 40% reduction in energy/switch when compared to 45nm. It also offers a smaller die size compared to alternative “Gate Last” approaches and maintains many of the same design layout advantages as 45nm, making it an easier transition for designers.
Die Shot
Our 32nm HKMG yields are now at best-in-class levels at Fab 1 in Dresden. In fact, we recently announced the shipment of our 250,000th 32nm HKMG wafer—an order of magnitude more HKMG wafers than any competing foundry has shipped—and we are rapidly putting that milestone in the rearview mirror as we continue to crank out new silicon.
We’re pleased to see that this message has been picked up in the early coverage of the “Trinity” launch. For example, in a story by EETimes, analyst Nathan Brookwood of Insight 64 is quoted as saying:
AMD has put yield issues with GlobalFoundries way behind them from everything I have heard. Six months ago, I would have been shocked if someone said [Intel and AMD] would be ramping [their latest CPUs] in parallel, but that’s what we are seeing.
For more information on the launch of “Trinity,” visit AMD’s product launch page, which includes images, videos, presentations, and more.
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