Nikkei Electronics Asia -- January 2010
Analysis
Intel Changes Course from Processors to SoCs

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Jan 1, 2010 00:05 Tomohisa Takei

The undisputed giant of the semiconductor industry is making its move into the embedded systems field for televisions and similar equipment. The company revealed plans to ship a variety of system-on-a-chip (SoC) products incorporating the latest technology, revealing its keen interest in the SoC business as expectations of PC growth fade.

The world's largest semiconductor manufacturer has decided to enter the main processor market, taking aim at audio-visual equipment. Intel Corp. has announced plans to beef up its SoC (system-on-a-chip)˘÷ business for diverse applications including routers and other network equipment, and home-use AV equipment like TVs, Blu-ray recorders, and set-top boxes (STB).

˘÷SoC (system-on-a-chip): A silicon chip integrating major computer functions. In general, this includes peripheral circuits and logic for specific applications.

Until now, Intel business has been centered on microprocessors for PC and servers, but now the firm is changing its strategy and grooming the SoC business as the growth driver. "It's not hard to imagine that SoC shipment volume will exceed general-purpose microprocessor shipment volume in about five years," reveals Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini.

While many semiconductor manufacturers are suffering from soaring costs related to developing cutting-edge manufacturing technology, Intel's aggressive strategy shift is a bit unusual. Intel plans to apply the advanced manufacturing technology already used in PC microprocessors to make SoCs, and release a flurry of products for a variety of application sectors. Backed up by its ample resources of capital, Intel could trigger a major upheaval in the digital consumer electronics world by bringing its PC microprocessor culture into SoCs.

Into the World of 45 nm Technology

Intel is serious about the SoC business, as shown by its application of cutting-edge manufacturing technology in SoCs. At Intel Developer Forum 2009 (IDF2009), held by the company in September 2009, Intel announced the Intel Atom Processor CA4100 (development code named "Sodaville"), a SoC for home-use AV equipment. This is the first SoC from Intel to use state-of-the-art 45 nm manufacturing technology.

Intel has proposed SoC for digital consumer equipment in the past. Most of them seemed to be mere trials, though, utilizing 90 nm manufacturing technology that was already two generations out of date in PC microprocessors. The CE4100, however, skipped over 65 nm entirely, jumping directly to today's most advanced manufacturing technology in commercial microprocessors.

Wait---there's more. Intel also announced that it will apply newer manufacturing technologies like 32 nm and 22 nm almost simultaneously in microprocessors and SoCs. As Intel Senior Fellow of Logic Technology Development Mark Bohr explains (Fig. 1), "We applied 45 nm manufacturing technology to SoCs a year or more after we used it in microprocessors. We will shorten this lag time to about six months for 32 nm, and to about three months for 22 nm technology."

Fig. 1 Early Adoption of Cutting-Edge Manufacturing Technology in SoCs
Intel continues to shrink the design rule every other year, but is now determined to shrink the lag time between manufacturing technology application in microprocessors and SoCs, too. The lag was a year or more for 45 nm technology, but the company plans to cut this to about six months for 32 nm and about three for 22 nm.