45nm: Who will be first?
Well, I certainly believed it would be Intel before Engagdget started trying to change my mind. That site claimed that Panasonic Blu-ray DVD recorders seen at CEATEC contained the UniPhier (Universal Platform for High-quality Image Enhancing Revolution) chip allegedly built with Matsushita’s 45nm technology. The DVD units are scheduled to roll November 1. Engagdget previously reported that Panasonic began mass producing 45nm wafers in June.
Panasonic describes the UniPhier features as:
“Smooth image data communication can be realized, and this has been achieved by employing multi decoding technology, which is capable of simultaneously processing two large screens of high picture quality and full-HD, and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 encoding technology, which compresses a full-HD image into 1/2 to 1/3 its original size compared with the conventional technology.”
Those data compression requirements sound a lot like the HDC-SD5 camcorder spec. However, the Panasonic IC found in the HiDef camcorder is nowhere near 45nm. The 2WS0055 is actually 130nm technology with only six copper metals. That’s not all. The HDC-SD5 relies on an external video codec IC – Fujitsu’s 90nm MB86H51. The audio codec is also external – from AKM. That’s at least a three component solution in the camcorder.
Will the Uniphier chip for the set-top DVD recorder really be 45nm? If you need to take the circuits from the 2WS0055 and 
add two of what’s inside the MB86H51 codec, the die size might only be economical if you build the beast in 45nm technology. Except for the audio chip, the die sizes are:
- Panasonic 2WS0055Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 104 sq mm
- Fujitsu MB86H51
- Codec                     91 sq mm
- FCRAM (256M X 2)Â Â 114 sq mm
The Fujitsu video codec with logic die stacked on top of the two DRAM die also adds an extra 750mW to the load on the camera batteries.
If Panasonic/Matsushita were as close to 45nm as they are saying, wouldn’t they prefer to use the advanced technology, single-chip solution in their battery-powered products, where board space is at a premium?
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