Simplex Solutions Inc, the semiconductor software maker whose shares have doubled in a month, and No. 2 chipmaker Toshiba Corp have created a new way to build faster and more efficient chips. Simplex's software helps design and produce semiconductors.
The new process, which Simplex and Toshiba have been working on for two years, will let chip designers create semiconductors that are 10 percent faster while using 20 percent less power, said chairman and CEO Penny Herscher.
The new design will let information on chips travel diagonally, instead of at right angles, as current chip designs do, she said. The new process will also let chip makers build 30 percent more chips on a single silicon wafer.
``This will change the face of silicon,'' Herscher said.
``It will change the way every chip looks five years from now.'' Simplex said it will be able to create a limited number of so-called X architecture chips this year. Toshiba, based in Tokyo, plans to use the new chips in electronic devices in 2002.
Simplex's customers include No. 1 computer chip maker Intel Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, the second-biggest maker of computer chips, and STMicroelectronics NV, Europe's No. 1 semiconductor maker.
Simplex, based in Sunnyvale, California, first sold 4 million shares at US$12 each on May 1, raising US$48 million for the company. The shares rose US$4.20 to US$28 last Friday. Toshiba shares fell US$0.63 to US$5.75. They've fallen 12 percent this year.
Separately, Simplex said it joined with several semiconductor-related companies to promote use of the new chip design. Those companies include Dai Nippon Printing, DuPont Photomasks Inc, and Applied Materials Inc.
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