Appleinsider claims that the 90nm PowerPC was officially "taped out" and ready for production.
According to this report, the new chip is said to use a Strained Silicon on Insulator (SSOI) technology. The new technology offers speed boosts and decreased power requirements for upcoming chips by combining Strained Silicon and Silicon on Insulator (SOI) technology. However, according to comments from Bijan Davari, vice president of technology development at IBM Microelectronics, IBM is not planning on introducing SSOI technology until 65nm -- which is expected in 2005. This discrepancy raises some questions about the validity of this new report.
However, that being said, 90nm PowerPC 970 technology is imminent -- with IBM offering a presentation on the 90nm PowerPC 970 in February 2004 at the 2004 ISSCC Conference.
The 90nm PowerPC 970 likely represents the "GPUL2" that was referenced by eWeek in July. The GPUL2 was described to be an updated PowerPC 970 and was expected to be introduced by mid-2004.
