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IBM pips TSMC in immersion PR stakes |
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Feb 04, 2005 at 09:00 PM |
IBM jumped on the immersion hype-wagon early in December when it
claimed it was "the first company to successfully employ this "wet"
process to produce commercial microprocessors. These chips, based on
IBM's Power architecture, were literally patterned underwater, an
industry first," went the press release.
Dr. Bernard Meyerson, chief technologist, IBM Systems & Technology
Group, was accredited within the release as stating that "This
advancement holds great promise for continuing progress in chip
manufacturing technology well into the future,"
IBM may have gone a little too far in its hype as it was well known
within lithography circles that IBM does not actually possess its own
immersion tool quite yet! Apparently the "successful manufacture of
commercial Power microprocessors using immersion" had taken place at
the Albany University "NanoTech" centre. The research centre had taken
ownership of an ASML TWINSCAN AT: 1150(I) R&D only immersion tool
in August 2004. Other partners within the NanoTech centre include AMD
and Infineon and of course IBM!
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