Það er nú satt. Fyrir stuttu voru veitt hin eftirsóttu INSIGHT
verðlauninn. Sony vann veðlauninn gegn helsta keppinautinum
nVidia. Ég veit að það er bannað að gera copy og paste enn hér
kemur greininn. Þessi grein er tekin af ps2.ign.com…..
hér er url til sönunnar. http://ps2.ign.com/news/33345.html

PS2's Graphics Synthesizer Wins Award

Semiconductor Insights awards Sony's processor over the
Pentium 4, AMD Athlon, and GeForce 2.

April 11, 2001

Semiconductor Insights announced today that it has awarded
Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) with an INSIGHT Award
for the Most Innovative Computing Semiconductor Product of
the Year for the Sony Graphics Synthesizer from the
PlayStation 2.

“System-on-a-Chip (SoC) design has been a buzzword in the
semiconductor industry for the past 5 years. Sony has
developed a chip that exemplifies the philosophy of SoC as it
not only integrates many functions on-chip but also integrates
different technologies,” said Derek Nuhn, Chief Operating
Officer of Semiconductor Insights. “The extreme performance
of the resulting chip is phenomenal.”

“This is the first year Semiconductor Insights has given out
the INSIGHT Awards and we plan to make it an annual
tradition,” Nuhn said. “Semiconductor Insights performs
competitive technical intelligence on devices in every
technology area each year putting us in the unique position of
analyzing the true technical merits of leading edge
semiconductor products.”

The Sony Graphics Synthesizer is used in the PlayStation 2
and can handle 20 times the simultaneous data of some PC
graphics accelerators and can render 75 million polygons per
second. The device is implemented in a sophisticated DRAM
process with high performance logic in a single die.

“PC technology has generally led the advancement of process
geometries in semiconductors,” a senior analyst indicated.
“Sony's Graphics Synthesizer has a logic core with embedded
DRAM. The embedded DRAM uses sophisticated sense
amplifiers that contain an SRAM latch and two read data
buses. This combination of DRAM and SRAM is intended to
improve the speed of the video memory for better drawing
performance.”

Semiconductor Insights' analysts also discovered that
although Sony's Graphics Synthesizer was likely implemented
in a 0.18 micron process, transistor sizes were found to be as
small as 0.1 microns. Sony uses a process approach that
results in near-perfect alignment of the transistors and
capacitor contacts. The Sony Graphics Synthesizer was
chosen amongst other innovative products nominated by
Semiconductor Insights' analysts, including such devices as
the Intel Pentium 4 Processor, the AMD Athlon Processor and
the nVIDIA Geforce2 Graphics Processor. These runner-up
devices also represent true innovations:

Intel Pentium 4 Processor – This device is developed on
Intel's 0.18 micron process and has transistor gates as small
as 0.1 microns. Intel uses a “notched” gate to achieve the
smaller transistors that also results in other benefits in the
process. The version investigated by Semiconductor Insights
runs at 1.5 GHz – over twice as fast as the Pentium III
examined in early 2000. Intel is using low-k dielectric in their
higher speed processors to reduce capacitance between
metal lines and allow for faster operation. Most other
manufacturers currently use copper for high speed operation.

AMD Athlon Processor – AMD is implementing their 1GHz and
higher processors in both aluminum and copper probably to
verify and test their copper process. Semiconductor Insights
has analyzed the copper version of the Athlon. Like the Intel
Pentium 4 Processor, AMD has transistor gates as small as
0.1 micron. NVIDIA Geforce2 Graphics Processor – nVIDIA is
a fabless company that uses TSMC as its foundry for
manufacturing integrated circuits. Developed on a 0.18
micron process, the Geforce2 has more functionality that
previous generations, including transform and lighting
functions, leading to faster process speeds, dynamic per pixel
shading and videoprocessing that, in conjunction with a
receiver, allows for computers to view HDTV signals.

Semiconductor Insights congratulates Sony Computer
Entertainment and their design team for demonstrating
innovation and implementing a design that advances the
development of semiconductor technology. Other Insight
awards will be announced in the near future.