Today I received three different press releases about a tapeout at 20 nm. The first important item about the releases is that what is announced is a tapeout. Not a successful fabrication or even more remarkable the achievement of commercially viable yield levels. When a tapeout becomes news, the relevant news is that it is worthy of a press release at all.

The partnership of ARM, Cadence, and TSMC spanning EDA, IP and foundry has achieved a tapeout of the ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore. As I have written frequently in the past, process technology has reached a point where it is impossible for just one company to find success on its own. Not only do EDA companies have to collaborate with a foundry to validate their own tools, but the foundry and the EDA vendors must be involved in the development of the specific design destined for 20 nm and future processes. It is not an accident that it is an IP company whose design is destined for very high production volume that is the first user to benefit from the 20 nm process.

The iPDK was a very good idea for processes between 90 and 28 nm, but beginning with the 20 nm node nothing is independent of the foundry and the EDA tools choices. What the achievement so proudly announced means is that design houses that use TSMC can now incorporate the specific ARM core as a hard IP in their circuits. I expect that interface circuitry for the core will also be standardized, possibly by Cadence, to insure that the expected physical characteristics of the die in the area adjacent to the core will not generate interferences that will negate the proper functioning of the specific tapeout achieved.

And although one of the releases states that: "This industry effort will enables customers to design Cortex-A15 processor-based designs at the most advanced process nodes." it is also true that it increases the die cost. This results in only two possibilities: either greater cost of the commercial wireless product, or smaller unit margin for the manufacturer. Fortunately for our industry and our customers, consumers have been conditioned to purchase the latest gadgets no matter the cost, since it is a badge of honor to possess the latest version of an electronic gadget. After all one is only as important as his or her latest device.