santino writes "This article over at eeTimes talks about the SOI process, and briefly mentions Motorola's adoption of the (not so) new technique. Specifically mentioning its use on an AltiVec G4, that will read speeds in excess of 1 GHz that will be in mass production by mid-2001."
From the article:
"At the VLSI Technology Symposium here this past week, managers from Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector told EE Times that the company will use an SOI process initially at 0.18-micron design rules but moving quickly to 0.13 micron to build an Altivec G4 PowerPC processor.
The chip is to sample late this year and go into volume production in mid-2001. Performance will be "well over a gigahertz," said Suresh Venkatesan, who is in charge of developing Motorola's 130-nanometer (0.13-micron) technology."
So, mid 2001? Let's hope it is "well over" a gig.