Relationship between SOI process and ISON
By Phil Trent
Date: July 19, 2001
I find it unusual that ISON (Disclosure: I am 100% in ISON stock) would be allowed by AMD to announce that it is ISON's development partner in epitaxial wafers with Si-28 just after AMD's CC announcement regarding their push to SOI.
As I understand SOI, it does run cooler and faster (according to IBM), but I've also read that because it is thinner, it is more susceptible to "hot spots." Is it possible that ISON's technology will be required with all SOI applications? Perhaps not now, but in the future as the wattage dissipation continues to increase over a decreasing die area?
Probably just some idle speculation, but the timing of AMD's SOI announcement and ISON's announcement a few days later lends these thoughts some credence.
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