AMD Announces World’s Fastest CMOS Transistors

-Details of Technology Breakthrough To Be Presented At Prestigious Forum-

SUNNYVALE, CA -- 12/3/2001 -- AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced today it has built a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) transistor that achieves the fastest switching speeds yet reported in the semiconductor industry. The company has developed a device with a 15-nanometer gate length (0.015 micron), a prototype for the transistors that it plans to use to power future generations of microprocessors.

This latest milestone from AMD heralds the capability for a twenty-fold increase in the number of transistors per chip and a ten-fold increase in microprocessor performance by the end of the decade. AMD will disclose its research in a paper to be presented in Washington D.C. on December 4 at the 2001 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), one of the world's leading conferences for semiconductor engineers and scientists.

AMD's 15-nm device is a prototype that is key to the development of AMD's 30-nanometer process generation, which the company plans to have in production by approximately 2009. On AMD's roadmap, the 30-nm (0.03-micron) technology will make use of 300-mm wafers.

"Our ongoing research allows us to stay on the forefront of transistor design, which translates into increasingly powerful processors. Transistor technology is the ‘engine’ that powers our high-performance microprocessors. That's why AMD continues to devote significant R&D resources to ensure that our transistor technology is world class," said Dr. Craig Sander, vice president of AMD's technology development group.

The 15-nm transistor, devised in AMD's Submicron Development Center, is a CMOS-based, 0.8-Volt device, designed to handle switching speeds of 0.3-ps, or 3.33 trillion switches per second. The development of the 15-nm transistor is a powerful indicator that transistor scaling will continue unabated for many years to come.

"The work to develop this transistor is a vital part of AMD’s overall transistor development effort," said Sander. "This look-ahead research gives us confidence in our long-term roadmaps and strategies, while providing spin-off technology that feeds our near-term development program. We are proud to be the first company in our industry to publicly present data demonstrating these capabilities."

About AMD
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Asia. AMD, a Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor’s 500 company, produces microprocessors, flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications.

Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD had revenues of $4.6 billion in 2000. (NYSE: AMD).