Updated Stratix II Power Specs & Explanation

Paul,

To save you the embarrasment, I sent my reply to you directly.

Austin

Paul Leventis (at home) wrote:

>>I am sorry, but you have never run a spice simulation of midox pass 
>>transistor vs thin ox.
> 
> 
> I am sorry Austin, but how exactly is it that increasing oxide thickness 
> does not decrease transistor speed?  Increased tox = decreased beta = 
> decrease Ids.  And the Vt increases with tox too, unless you adjust the 
> implant levels for those transistors (at the expensive of another mask and 
> processing step).  If there were truely no speed implications of using 
> thicker oxide transistors, we'd all be using thick oxide transistors 
> everywhere and bragging about are "Single Gate Oxide" technologies!.
> 
> There are places where slower transistors (be it longer gates, higher Vt, or 
> thicker oxide) are more tolerable than others.  For example, the 
> configuration rams (no impact on speed).  Are the pass gates one of those 
> places?  Maybe -- depends on speed vs. leakage goals and the exact result 
> you get from your sim.  Arguing that there is no speed loss and no 
> complexity increase whatsoever though is silly.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Paul Leventis
> Altera Corp. 
> 
>