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| Chartered and Microsoft Sign an Agreement Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing has signed an agreement with Microsoft for the manufacturing of CPU products - using 65-nanometer Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) semiconductor technology - for Microsoft's Xbox 360 game consoles. Production is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2007, and will support the Xbox 360's growing demand and expanding market reach. The announcement follows Chartered's successful manufacturing of 90nm SOI CPU products for the Xbox 360 console's launch, through an agreement with IBM. SOI refers to placing a thin layer of silicon on top of an insulator, such as silicon oxide or glass. The transistors (switches that are used in microprocessors) are then built on top of this thin layer of SOI. The basic idea is that the SOI layer reduces the capacitance of the switch, so it operates faster. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Computing News :: home page |