Sun tapes out Niagara 2, faces 45nm challenge

by Marco Chiappetta — Tuesday, May 01, 2007, 02:00 PM EDT

According to a story on EE Times, Sun Microsystems has taped out its next-geNiagara 2 and Rock processors, but the company faces a major hurdle getting access to leading edge 45 and 32nm process technology for its future Sparc CPUs...

"In an exclusive interview with EE Times in his Menlo Park office, Yen showed the first wafers back from the fab for Niagara 2, set to ship in systems before the end of the year. He also discussed the issues Sun faces now that its longtime silicon partner, Texas Instruments, has decided to rely on foundries to develop next-generation semiconductor process technology.

Chief executive Jonathan Schwartz appointed Yen, a long time Sun veteran, to head up Sun Microelectronics in late March. Yen had led the group for several years beginning in 2001 until he was named to head a systems design group and later a storage division."

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Tags: CES, 45nm, Sun, HAL, NIA, Niagara, AG, S 4, AC, AP, Ara, AR

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com