Directions in future high end processors

Results based on a new cycle-time model are presented to demonstrate performance trends for complex bipolar ECL-CSEF and CMOS processors. It is shown that performance constraints are quite different for these two systems. For a given design the performance of a CMOS processor is tied to lithography, whereas future CSEF bipolar processors will be gated primarily by the power density capability of the package. Liquid nitrogen temperature (LN/sub 2/) CMOS is seen as having the potential to become the highest performance technology for mainframe uniprocessors.<<ETX>>