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Texas Instruments is to migrate "SmartReflex" leakage power technologies to 65nm devices, the company said in a press statement. Some of the technology was first introduced for some of TI's 90nm devices in the last 18 months and was positioned then as a work around for leakage issues experienced at that node. However, the wording of today's release give the strong impression that the technology has been further developed to assist the company in providing power consumption gains for its next generation of products. TI states that "has solved the 65nm leakage power challenge for mobile devices with its "SmartReflex" power and performance management technologies."

The problem could be just over hyped hype! But it ponders the question of what has happened to the high k dielectric and associated processes long been under development, that were earmarked for entry at the 65nm node.

Depending on what side of the fence you sit, TI has been considered an aggressive Moore's Law follower, while others have noted that it has also been rather conservative in its overall process changes. Shrinks yes, materials no!

No semiconductor company outside of Japan has stated clearly that high k processes will be used at the 65nm node and we may only get a good sense of TI strategy in December with the IEDM conference.