Where Industry and Security Intersect
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February 20-21, 2008
OPEN SESSION (All day on Wednesday, February 20th)
Public Presentations:
There were no public presentations.
Agenda Item Presentations/Discussions:
SPAWAR: Pat Sullivan of SPAWAR commented on the new maritime strategy and on the implications of maritime security to commerce. He also suggested that emerging export control challenges pertain to
– Data acquisition, which remains the key factor in bringing analog data into the digital world.
– Data mining, analysis and information fusion are the core emerging technologies that are needed to extract meaning from a rapidly expanding amount of data.
Cymer: Rita Spencer-Rout provided a corporate overview of Cymer, after which David Kortbawi provided a technology overview of the EUV plasma light source (not a laser, but a plasma light source that is pumped/powered by a laser) that Cymer is developing for use at the 13.5 nm technology node. EUV lithography represents a major design change from current lithography: The source is broadband, incoherent and uncollimated; the optics are reflective rather than transmissive; the light path is in vacuum; the light source is pulsed; and the light source will be more intimately connected to the scanner. From an export-control standpoint, it was thought that the existing controls (based on 180 nm lithography) capture this EUV technology.
Quantum Computing: David Lindsay of IDA provided an information/educational introduction to quantum computing. He began by illustrating the behavior of light as both particle and as wave, and extended to provide a framework for the audience to consider how these principles might be applied to quantum computing. As this presentation was educational, no further action was required.
3-D Integrated Circuits: Don Nelson of Intel provided a comprehensive overview of three-dimensional integrated circuits, including the motivation for developing 3-D ICs, the underlying technology and challenges, and some examples of 3-D structures. Key points were:
--The motivations for 3-D structures (“stacking”) are: 1) shorter wire lengths, 2) smaller volumetric form factor, 3) enabling integration of disparate technologies in the manufacturing process flow (e.g., DRAM on CMOS; III-V on Si; etc.).
--A desired technology is to be able to split the logic block (of a microprocessor) into a top half and a bottom half. This would allow for much greater density, but there are formidable engineering challenges to successful implementation. Principal challenges are layout design, splitting the architecture, thermal management and testing.
--The base technology for 3-D ICs is widely understood. Translation to high-volume production is the challenge.
--It was suggested that the national security concerns of 3-D ICs pertain less to the manufacturing processes and more to the functionality of the devices. Thus, controls might more effectively be placed on devices of concern (e.g., chemical sensor on a DSP chip; InP RF/uW ciscuit on Si logic ship).
WA Proposals for 2008: Joe Young of BIS explained that the slate of US proposals to Wassenaar for 2008 would be finalized by Friday, Feb 22 and suggested that industry should begin work on proposals for 2009 beginning on Monday, Feb 25. Key points were:
--All of the industry-initiated proposals in Categories 3, 4 and 5pt1 except the Cat 4 Interconnects proposal were agreed to and will be in among the slate of US proposals. The several industry-initiated Cat 5pt2 proposals, however, were not agreed to.
--There will be a clarification in Cat 3B that ALE is controlled by an existing entry.
--Al Courduff recommended that industry could submit a “reasonable” proposal for reduction of the current 180 nm threshold for lithography, but cautioned that proposals for reduction of the threshold to 32 nm or to 45 nm were unlikely to be considered as “reasonable”.
--Joel Cook suggested that an attempt should be made to define or clarify the phrase “capable of” as it is used in Cat 3B.
APP Review: Henry Brandt of IBM provided an overview of trends in high-performance computing and the implications of those trends for export controls. Key points were:
--The Top 500 List is a good proxy for the state-of-the-art in high-performance computing.
--Based on current trends, it is predicted that by 2010 a notional one-box computer (having 16 processor sockets) will have processing power in the range 0.8-1.5 WT, which exceeds the current 0.75 WT threshold. Based on this prediction, it would be appropriate to begin consideration now of a proposal for relaxation to that threshold.
Recognition of and thanks to SPAWAR for 10 years of hosting: This meeting marked the 10th year consecutive in which the February ISTAC meeting has been hosted by SPAWAR. In recognition of this milestone, a small celebration was held.
The open session was adjourned.