X-bit labs

Transmeta Selects Fujitsu for Manufacturing the Next-Generation Efficeon Processors.

Category: Mobile

by Anton Shilov

[ 10/08/2003 | 04:20 AM ]

Transmeta, a well-known mobile CPU company, disclosed plans concerning its next-generations of Efficeon processors due in the second half of next year and to be made using 90nm fabrication process. Apparently, Transmeta decided to use Fujitsu manufacturing facility in Akiruno Technology Center near Tokyo, Japan instead of TSMC’s foundry in Taiwan.

Next week Transmeta will finally roll-out its long-awaited Efficeon processor designed to offer more performance and lower power consumption than predecessors. You can find a lot of information about Efficeon processors in our previous Transmeta-related news-stories.

Engineering teams from the two companies have been working closely together to port the Efficeon design to Fujitsu’s CS100 90nm CMOS process, which features transistors with 40nm physical gate length. Volume production for the 90nm version of Efficeon is slated for the second-half of 2004.

Transmeta’s Matthew Perry said that earlier this year the company had conducted a worldwide investigation and had found that Fujitsu’s 90nm process had delivered the best performance of any technology they evaluated.

There is no information about TSMC’s and Transmeta collaboration on 90nm processors, but the initial battle for Transmeta was lost by the Taiwanese firm in favor of the Japanese manufacturer. Probably this happened because Fujitsu has already been manufacturing some of its CPUs using 90nm technology for some time now, while TSMC is still tuning the process and is currently making only chips with very low complexity using its 90nm fabrication technology.