ARM-developed SOI allows for 40% energy reduction

ARM has developed a new solicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology which allows for a 40% power reduction in comparison to the traditional bulk process. A 45nm testchip was shown during the IEEE SOI conference in America.

To demonstrate the new technoloy a test chip was developed based on the ARM 1176 processor of which one chip used the special 45nm SOI process and the other chip using a bulk CMOS technology with low power consumption. The SOI chip required 40% less power to operate at the same speeds, while sporting a surface reduction of 7%. When overclocked, the chip reaches a 20% performance increase while maintaining a power consumption of 30% in comparison to the bulk production.

In cooperation with IBM, the company wishes to show that the used SOI process is to provide several advantages to manufacturers using the conventional bulk CMOS process. Energy-efficient and mobile devices are to benefit from the new technology the most.

Two chips were developed based on the ARM 1176 processor

Tags: cmos overclocking

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