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90 nm process

The 90 nm process is a semiconductor manufacturing technology node in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication, defined by a minimum feature length of 90 nanometers for transistors and interconnects.^[1] This node represented a critical step in the scaling of integrated circuits, allowing for increased transistor density, enhanced performance, and reduced power consumption compared to prior generations like 130 nm.^[2] Commercial production of 90 nm processes began in the early 2000s, with initial developments from companies including Toshiba, Sony, and Samsung in 2001–2002 for applications such as embedded dynamic random-access memory (eDRAM) and NAND flash.^[3]^[4] Intel led the volume production introduction in 2003, deploying it for high-performance logic chips and marking the industry's transition to 300 mm wafers as standard.^[5]^[6] By 2004, foundries like TSMC had ramped up manufacturing and verified the production of fully functional 90 nm chips using immersion lithography for improved resolution and yield.^[7] Other major adopters included IBM, AMD, Fujitsu, Infineon, and Texas Instruments, which introduced variants optimized for low-power and high-performance applications around 2004–2006.^[8]^[9] Key innovations in the 90 nm node focused on overcoming scaling challenges, such as transistor leakage and interconnect delays. Intel's process featured strained silicon transistors, which enhanced carrier mobility by over 50% and boosted NMOS and PMOS drive currents by 10–20%, enabling higher clock speeds while maintaining lower power consumption.^[10]^[11] Additional advancements included low-k dielectric materials for reduced capacitance in interconnects and aggressive design rules with unlanded contacts to achieve transistor densities up to approximately 1.45 million per square millimeter.^[12] Samsung's implementation emphasized high-density non-volatile memory solutions.^[13] These features supported a wide range of products, from microprocessors to memory and RF/analog circuits, before the node was largely superseded by 65 nm processes around 2006.^[8]^[14]

Technology Fundamentals

Definition and Key Specifications

The 90 nm process node is a generation of semiconductor manufacturing technology used to fabricate integrated circuits, where the designation refers to the minimum feature size of approximately 90 nanometers, specifically the half-pitch of critical layers such as the contacted poly gate or first metal interconnect in CMOS transistors. This node represents a full scaling step beyond the 130 nm generation, following an intermediate 110 nm shrink used by some manufacturers as a stopgap to extend prior technologies. It enabled significant advancements in transistor integration while maintaining compatibility with established fabrication paradigms.^[2] Key specifications for the 90 nm node include a typical drawn gate length of 90 nm, with physical gate lengths realized around 40-50 nm after lithography and etching processes, depending on the application (e.g., high-performance vs. low-power logic). Metal pitch for local interconnects typically ranges from 210 to 240 nm (based on a half-pitch of 105-120 nm), reflecting the minimum center-to-center spacing for metal lines in the backend-of-line (BEOL). Transistor densities reached up to approximately 140 million transistors per square centimeter in logic circuits, supporting complex system-on-chip designs. Core power supply voltages operated at 1.0-1.2 V, balancing performance and power efficiency for microprocessors and memory devices.^[2]^[15]^[16] In terms of equivalent scaling, the 90 nm node achieved roughly 30% linear dimension reduction compared to the 130 nm predecessor, per the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) guidelines, resulting in enhanced transistor performance metrics. This included increased drive current (up to 1.0-1.2 mA/μm for NMOS devices) due to shorter channel lengths and reduced gate capacitance (by about 30%), which improved switching speeds while mitigating short-channel effects through optimized doping profiles.^[2]^[17] The basic architecture of most 90 nm processes retained planar CMOS transistors on bulk silicon substrates for reliable fabrication, though some manufacturers transitioned to silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates to improve performance and power efficiency. This approach facilitated high-volume manufacturing with established tools and processes.^[2]^[18]^[19]

Comparison to Adjacent Process Nodes

The 90 nm process node represented a significant step in semiconductor scaling, achieving an approximate 30% linear dimension reduction from the preceding 130 nm node, consistent with the historical 0.7× shrink factor per generation.^[20] This scaling resulted in roughly double the transistor density, as area scales inversely with the square of the linear factor (i.e., density gain ≈ $1 / (0.7)^2 \approx 2), enabling more compact designs and higher integration levels while approximating Dennard scaling principles that maintain constant power density through proportional reductions in voltage and capacitance.^[21] In practice, manufacturers like Samsung reported die size reductions exceeding 50% compared to 130 nm equivalents, alongside 20-30% speed improvements in circuit performance, though actual gains varied by implementation and often reached 30-50% due to architectural optimizations.^[13] Despite these advances, the 90 nm node introduced notable trade-offs, particularly in power management and fabrication complexity. Leakage currents increased substantially, with gate oxide tunneling rising from less than 5% of total leakage at 130 nm to around 40% at 90 nm, driven by thinner gate oxides (e.g., 1.2 nm SiO₂), leading to overall leakage up to several times higher than prior nodes and challenging standby power budgets.^[22] Manufacturing costs also escalated due to greater process complexity, including more intricate photomasks—typically 20-30 layers versus 15-20 for 130 nm—to accommodate finer features and additional interconnect layers, compounded by the shift to 300 mm wafers for higher yields but initial setup expenses.^[23] The 90 nm node served as a critical precursor to sub-90 nm challenges, notably by introducing low-k dielectrics (e.g., SiCOH with k ≈ 2.9 versus fluorinated SiO₂ at k ≈ 3.6 in 130 nm) to reduce interconnect capacitance and RC delays, a technique that became standard in later nodes for sustaining scaling.^[24] However, it retained traditional SiO₂ gate dielectrics, unlike the high-k metal gates adopted at 45 nm to further curb leakage without sacrificing capacitance control.^[25] Quantitatively, these shifts enabled clock speed gains, such as Intel's Pentium 4 reaching up to 3.8 GHz on 90 nm versus around 3.0-3.4 GHz on 130 nm implementations, while power efficiency improved by approximately 25% in metrics like MIPS per watt for low-power designs like Renesas' SH-X core.^[26]^[27]

Innovations and Features

Material and Structural Advancements

The 90 nm process node marked significant advancements in strained silicon technology to enhance transistor performance amid scaling challenges. Intel pioneered the integration of uniaxial strained silicon in its 90 nm CMOS logic technology, achieving carrier mobility improvements of approximately 10% for electrons and 20% for holes compared to unstrained silicon. This was accomplished through a process-induced strain mechanism involving the deposition of a silicon nitride (SiN) capping layer on the transistor channel, which creates tensile stress for n-channel MOSFETs and compressive stress for p-channel MOSFETs via selective etching and deposition techniques. Unlike earlier biaxial strain approaches that relied on global lattice mismatch in epitaxial Si/SiGe layers—yielding similar electron mobility gains but limited hole mobility enhancement due to perpendicular strain effects—uniaxial strain provided superior overall performance by aligning stress primarily along the channel direction, reducing the need for complex epitaxial growth and improving manufacturability. Interconnect scaling at the 90 nm node continued to leverage copper metallization combined with low-k dielectrics to mitigate RC delay increases from dimensional shrinkage. Copper lines were fabricated using the dual-damascene process, where vias and trenches are etched simultaneously into the dielectric, followed by copper electroplating and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) to form multilevel wiring with pitch dimensions around 140-180 nm.^[28] Low-k materials, such as carbon-doped silicon oxide (SiOC) with dielectric constants below 3.0 (typically 2.7-2.9), replaced traditional SiO2 (k=3.9) to reduce intermetal capacitance by up to 20%, enabling higher clock speeds without excessive power dissipation.^[29] These dielectrics were integrated via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), with barrier layers like tantalum nitride (TaN) deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) to prevent copper diffusion.^[30] The gate stack in 90 nm transistors featured ultra-thin silicon dioxide (SiO2) or silicon oxynitride (SiON) dielectrics with an effective oxide thickness (EOT) of approximately 1.2 nm to maintain gate control while suppressing leakage currents. This scaling from prior nodes' ~2 nm EOT allowed for shorter channel lengths (around 50 nm) but introduced challenges like direct tunneling, prompting nitridation of the oxide to increase physical thickness slightly without raising EOT. In parallel, research variants explored metal gates to eliminate polysilicon depletion effects and further reduce EOT; for instance, the IBM alliance investigated tantalum-based metal gates in developmental 90 nm flows, achieving up to 15% drive current improvement in prototypes before full adoption in later nodes. Refinements in shallow trench isolation (STI) addressed isolation needs for denser layouts, incorporating high-density plasma chemical vapor deposition (HDP-CVD) with hydrogen etch enhancements to achieve void-free gap filling in trenches as narrow as 80-100 nm wide and 300-400 nm deep.^[31] This improved stress management and reduced parasitic capacitance compared to earlier STI processes. Additionally, silicide contacts shifted toward nickel silicide (NiSi) over cobalt silicide (CoSi2) for source/drain and gate regions, offering 20-30% lower sheet resistance (around 2.5 Ω/sq) and reduced silicon consumption (1.8x vs. 3.5x the metal thickness), which minimized junction depth encroachment in scaled devices.^[32] The NiSi formation involved rapid thermal annealing of sputtered nickel films, providing better thermal stability up to 700°C than CoSi2.^[33]

Lithography and Fabrication Techniques

The 90 nm process marked a significant transition in lithography to 193 nm argon fluoride (ArF) excimer lasers, enabling the patterning of features approaching the wavelength limit through dry lithography systems with numerical apertures up to 0.93. This shift from previous 248 nm krypton fluoride (KrF) systems allowed for improved resolution in critical layers such as gates and contacts, though it required aggressive management of optical diffraction effects.^[34] TSMC was the first to demonstrate fully functional 90 nm chips using 193 nm immersion lithography in 2004, utilizing a water-immersion scanner to achieve numerical apertures exceeding 1.0, which enhanced resolution by increasing the refractive index of the medium between the lens and wafer.^[35] This approach, verified with fully functional 90 nm chips, provided a pathway to extend 193 nm tools beyond dry limits without shifting to shorter wavelengths like 157 nm fluorine excimer lasers.^[36] To achieve the precise 90 nm half-pitch lines and spaces, resolution enhancement techniques (RET) such as optical proximity correction (OPC) and phase-shift masks (PSM) were essential. OPC computationally adjusted mask patterns to counteract diffraction-induced distortions, compensating for proximity effects in dense arrays like transistor gates.^[37] Alternating PSM, which introduces a 180-degree phase shift in adjacent mask regions to enhance edge contrast through destructive interference, was applied to critical layers in 90 nm DRAM and logic devices, improving critical dimension (CD) uniformity by up to 20%.^[38] These techniques, combined with off-axis illumination, enabled reliable printing of sub-100 nm features despite the wavelength-to-feature ratio exceeding 2:1.^[39] The overall fabrication process for 90 nm CMOS integrated circuits followed a front-end-of-line (FEOL) and back-end-of-line (BEOL) flow comprising 10-12 major steps, starting with wafer preparation using standard 300 mm silicon substrates to maximize throughput and yield.^[40] Ion implantation introduced dopants for source/drain extensions and halo regions, with energies typically in the 5-20 keV range to achieve shallow junctions under 50 nm deep, followed by rapid thermal annealing at 1000-1050°C for 1-5 seconds to activate dopants while minimizing diffusion.^[41] Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) provided planarization after dielectric deposition, ensuring uniform topography for subsequent lithography layers with removal rates controlled to <500 nm/min to avoid dishing in copper interconnects.^[42] Plasma etching dominated pattern transfer, particularly for high-aspect-ratio features like gate stacks and vias exceeding 5:1 ratios, using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) systems with fluorocarbon chemistries to achieve anisotropic profiles and selectivities >20:1 over photoresist.^[43] Chemical vapor deposition (CVD), including low-pressure CVD (LPCVD) at 600-700°C, formed thin gate dielectrics such as nitrided silicon oxide (~1.2 nm equivalent oxide thickness), with post-deposition rapid thermal annealing in nitrogen ambient to densify the film and reduce defects like interface traps.^[44] These steps, iterated across multiple metal layers, ensured the structural integrity required for high-performance 90 nm devices.^[40]

History and Adoption

Development Timeline

Initial developments of the 90 nm semiconductor process occurred in 2001–2002 by companies including Toshiba, Sony, and Samsung, focusing on applications such as embedded dynamic random-access memory (eDRAM) and NAND flash.^[45] The development aligned with industry efforts to scale beyond the 130 nm node amid growing demands for higher transistor densities. In 2002, Intel initiated research and development on its 90 nm process, marking it as a pioneering effort in transitioning to nanoscale fabrication on 300 mm wafers, with initial demonstrations focusing on strained silicon transistors.^[5] Similarly, IBM showcased a 90 nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS process in 2002, emphasizing low-power applications through collaborative R&D.^[46] By 2003, pilot productions from 130 nm processes had matured sufficiently to support transitions, with Intel planning volume manufacturing of its 90 nm "Prescott" core for late 2003, though delays shifted this to early 2004.^[46] Production ramp-up accelerated in 2004, in line with the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS), which targeted the 90 nm node for entry into high-volume manufacturing between the first and fourth quarters of the year to meet DRAM half-pitch specifications.^[2] Intel launched its 90 nm process commercially in February 2004 with the Prescott-based Pentium 4 processors, achieving initial yields on 300 mm wafers and enabling over 100 million transistors per die.^[47] Concurrently, alliances such as IBM with AMD and Samsung advanced 90 nm logic technologies, with Samsung gaining access to IBM's 90 nm CMOS for system-on-chip production starting in 2004.^[48] TSMC entered volume production of its 90 nm process in the third quarter of 2004, utilizing low-k dielectrics and 300 mm wafers exclusively, which supported customer tape-outs and first-pass silicon deliveries.^[49] In December 2004, TSMC became the first company to produce fully functional 90 nm chips using immersion lithography technology.^[35] Adoption broadened in 2005, as memory manufacturers integrated the node for cost-effective scaling. Elpida Memory qualified its 90 nm process for DDR2 SDRAM production in early 2005, enabling 512 Mbit devices with reduced chip sizes around 70 mm² through optimized KrF lithography.^[50] This period saw global semiconductor sales reach $227.7 billion in 2004, a 28.6% increase from 2003, fueling investments in 90 nm ramps despite economic recoveries from prior downturns.^[51] By 2006, the 90 nm node achieved widespread use across logic and memory ICs before the industry shifted toward 65 nm introductions by major foundries and IDMs, reflecting a two-year production cycle per the ITRS.^[8] This transition underscored the node's role in bridging sub-100 nm scaling challenges, with cumulative shipments exceeding expectations for embedded and high-performance applications.^[2]

Major Manufacturers and Alliances

Intel pioneered the commercial volume production of the 90 nm process, achieving first shipments in 2004 through its in-house fabrication facilities, including the D1C fab in Hillsboro, Oregon, which utilized 300 mm wafers and 193 nm lithography.^[6] This marked Intel's transition from the 130 nm node, incorporating innovations like strained silicon transistors to enhance performance.^[52] As the leading pure-play foundry, TSMC initiated 90 nm volume production in the third quarter of 2004.^[49] TSMC's Nexsys 90 nm platform supported low-power, general-purpose, and high-performance variants, enabling broad adoption among fabless customers and contributing to its dominant position in the foundry market.^[53] The Common Platform alliance, spearheaded by IBM, facilitated cost-sharing and IP collaboration for 90 nm development among key players including Chartered Semiconductor, Samsung, and Infineon Technologies.^[48] Freescale Semiconductor joined subsequently. This extension of IBM's earlier copper interconnect initiatives, often referred to as the Copper Alliance, accelerated the rollout of nano-scale CMOS logic platforms.^[54] Other notable manufacturers included United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), which achieved strong industry acceptance for its 90 nm system-on-chip process by 2005, and Texas Instruments, which applied the node to analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits.^[55]^[8] By 2006, the 90 nm process had become a cornerstone of advanced logic production, with major foundries like TSMC and UMC reporting robust demand and volume ramps, though initial yield challenges during transitions—such as those related to new photoresists—impacted early manufacturing costs across the industry.^[56]^[52]

Products and Applications

Microprocessors and GPUs

The 90 nm process facilitated significant advancements in microprocessor and GPU designs, particularly through increased transistor densities that enabled higher performance while navigating thermal and power limitations. This era saw the widespread adoption of multi-core architectures in CPUs to sustain performance gains amid rising power densities, a shift often termed the "power wall," where single-core clock speed increases became inefficient due to exponential power consumption growth. Intel's Pentium 4 Prescott core, introduced in 2004, represented a key single-core implementation on 90 nm, supporting clock speeds from 3.0 GHz to 3.8 GHz with 125 million transistors integrated on a 112 mm² die. This design incorporated enhancements like improved branch prediction and larger L2 cache to boost integer and floating-point performance, though it highlighted power challenges with thermal design powers reaching up to 115 W. Building on this, Intel's Pentium D Smithfield in 2005 marked the company's first dual-core desktop processor, combining two Prescott cores on a single 206 mm² die with 230 million transistors; models like the 820 operated at 2.8 GHz with a 95 W TDP, emphasizing multi-threaded workloads to improve efficiency over single-core scaling.^[57] AMD leveraged the 90 nm node for its Athlon 64 lineup, with the Venice core—a shrink of the previous 130 nm Sledgehammer—debuting in 2004 at speeds up to 2.4 GHz (as in the Athlon 64 3800+) and featuring around 76 million transistors on an 84 mm² die, delivering strong single-threaded performance for consumer desktops via its integrated memory controller. The San Diego core, a 90 nm revision of the Clawhammer architecture also released in 2004-2005, similarly targeted up to 2.4 GHz with around 114 million transistors on a 115 mm² die, focusing on cost-effective upgrades for existing Socket 939 platforms. For servers, AMD's Opteron processors transitioned to 90 nm in 2004, exemplified by the single-core Opteron 248 at 2.2 GHz with 106 million transistors, providing robust multi-processor scalability for enterprise applications.^[58]^[59]^[60]^[61] Beyond x86 CPUs, the IBM-led Cell Broadband Engine, fabricated on 90 nm SOI in 2006 for the PlayStation 3 console, integrated a PowerPC core with eight synergistic processing elements, totaling 234 million transistors on a 221 mm² die; this heterogeneous design excelled in parallel multimedia tasks, achieving peak performance of 230 GFLOPS while managing a 70-100 W power envelope. In the GPU domain, NVIDIA's GeForce 7900 GTX, launched in 2006 as an early 90 nm flagship, employed the G71 chip with 278 million transistors on a 196 mm² die, supporting 24 pixel shaders and 512 MB GDDR3 memory for superior DirectX 9 rendering at resolutions up to 2560x1600, underscoring the process's role in enabling denser, more efficient graphics acceleration.^[62]^[63]

Memory Devices and Other ICs

The 90 nm process enabled significant advancements in dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) production, particularly for DDR2 SDRAM devices, by allowing higher densities and improved efficiency through reduced feature sizes. Elpida Memory initiated volume production of a 512 Mb DDR2 SDRAM using this process in 2005, achieving a compact die size of 69.9 mm² that supported high-speed variants like DDR2-533 and DDR2-667 for server and PC applications.^[50] This configuration yielded an effective cell size of approximately 0.13 µm² per bit, enhancing bit density while maintaining compatibility with existing module standards. Similarly, Samsung Electronics became the first to mass-produce a 1 Gb DDR2 DRAM at 90 nm in June 2005, with configurations for x4, x8, and x16 modules targeted at high-density server environments; the process contributed to lower power consumption and reduced overheating compared to prior nodes.^[64] In non-volatile memory, the 90 nm node facilitated early high-capacity NAND flash devices, advancing storage applications in portable and embedded systems. Toshiba and SanDisk jointly introduced the industry's first 4 Gb single-die multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash chip using 90 nm technology in 2004, with mass production ramping up in Q3 of that year at their Yokkaichi facility; this device, designated TC58NVG2D4BFT00, enabled 512 MB capacities in TSOP packages and supported faster write speeds via optimized cell control.^[65] An 8 Gb stacked variant followed, doubling density through die stacking while leveraging the same process for cost-effective scaling. Beyond standalone memory, the 90 nm process supported diverse non-processor integrated circuits, including analog and mixed-signal devices as well as system-on-chips (SoCs) with embedded memory. Texas Instruments utilized 90 nm CMOS technology for its TMS320C6455 fixed-point digital signal processor (DSP), released around 2006, which integrated mixed-signal elements like phase-locked loops (PLLs) for clock management and supported applications in video and broadband processing with up to 1.2 GHz operation and 2 MB of on-chip L2 SRAM.^[66] In SoC designs, Freescale Semiconductor's i.MX31 multimedia processor, announced in 2005, employed a 90 nm low-power process with dual-threshold voltage (Vt) transistors to balance performance and leakage; it featured embedded memory including 16 KB L1 instruction and data caches, 128 KB unified L2 cache, 16 KB SRAM, and 32 KB ROM, enabling efficient multimedia decoding (e.g., MPEG-4 and H.264) in portable devices like PDAs and gaming consoles.^[67] These integrations highlighted the node's ability to embed high-density memory—such as SRAM cells around 1.25 µm²—directly into SoCs for reduced latency and power in multimedia workflows.

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Dec 3, 2007 · TSMC's 90nm process family has low power (LP), general purpose (G), and high performance (GT) offerings. Features include multiple ultra-low, ...
[52]
IBM's R&D Partnering Model — up close and personal
Semiconductor History ... alliance. Its members include AMD, Chartered Semiconductor, Freescale, Infineon, Samsung, Sony, not to mention the State of New York.
[53]
UMC's 90-nanometer Manufacturing Technology Sees Strong ...
UMC's 90nm process node represents the foundry industry's most advanced production technology. The 90nm process has been developed according to UMC's SOC ...
[54]
How Intel, TI fare at 90 nm - EE Times
Jan 10, 2005 · The final issue to consider is manufacturing cost, from both a finished-wafer and a yield perspective. Using 90-nm process technology requires ...
[55]
Intel Pentium 4 2.40 Specs - CPU Database - TechPowerUp
The Intel Pentium 4 2.40 was a desktop processor with 1 core, launched in March 2004. It is part of the Pentium 4 lineup, using the Prescott architecture ...
[56]
Aptiva's cpu collection - View details on AMD Athlon 64 3800+ ...
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ (Venice). Manufacturer, AMD. Model, Athlon 64. Architecture ... Manufacturing process, 90 nm. Die size, 84 mm², Transistors count, 76000000.
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AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Specs - CPU Database - TechPowerUp
Athlon 64 3800+ has 512 KB of L2 cache and operates at 2.4 GHz. AMD is making the Athlon 64 3800+ on a 90 nm production node using 69 million transistors.
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AMD Opteron 248 Specs - CPU Database - TechPowerUp
Opteron 248 has 1 MB of L2 cache and operates at 2.2 GHz. AMD is building the Opteron 248 on a 90 nm production process using 106 million transistors. The ...Amd Opteron 248 · Performance · Architecture
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Introducing the IBM/Sony/Toshiba Cell Processor — Part II
Feb 8, 2005 · The entire Cell is produced on a 90nm SOI process with 8 layers of copper interconnect. The Cell sports 234 million transistors, and its die ...Missing: Broadband | Show results with:Broadband
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NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX Specs | TechPowerUp GPU Database
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX ; Foundry: TSMC ; Process Size: 90 nm ; Transistors: 278 million ; Density: 1.4M / mm² ; Die Size: 196 mm² ...
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Samsung First to Produce 90nm 1 Gb DDR2 DRAM - Phys.org
Jun 23, 2005 · It has lower power consumption, is much less prone to overheating, provides much greater signal integrity and delivers the best overall ...
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Toshiba, SanDisk debut 90-nm 4-Gbit NAND flash device - EE Times
The companies rolled out two devices, including the industry's first 4-gigabit single-die, multi-level cell (MLC) NAND chip. Toshiba also announced an 8-Gbit ...
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[PDF] TMS320C6455 Fixed-Point Digital Signal Processor datasheet (Rev ...
The C64x+™ devices are upward code-compatible from previous devices that are part of the C6000™ DSP platform. Based on 90-nm process technology and with ...
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[PDF] i.MX31 and i.MX31L Multimedia Applications Processors
To ensure the best possible performance trade-off, the i.MX31 and i.MX31L processors are manufactured using a 90-nm, low-power process to ensure minimum power.