“The hot rumour of the moment is that Intel is about to pull its 45 nanometre shrink into the first half of this year and so basically six months early,” Charlie Demerjian reports for The Inquirer.

“It may want to, but is it technically feasible? It isn’t like it is simply buying off the shelf parts, because this is bleeding edge tech,” Demerjian reports.

Demerjian reports, “In talking with manufacturing people, we’ve learned this might not be as impossible as it seems. The 45 nanometre process was basically done and set in mid-2006. With the recipe set, it was just a matter of equipping the fabs and getting the tools in place. Shake them down, and hopefully you are in business.”

“The tools are the critical components, and they may or may not be done in time for Intel to pull the schedule in. The key to this is the critical lithography tools. At 45 nanometres, Intel is not changing litho tools to a large degree, it is going for two pass dry lithography using many of the same parts as it did at 65 nanometres,”Demerjian reports.

Demerjian reports, “In both cases, this boils down to it being technically possible, barely. Assuming perfect execution, no stumbles along the way by Intel or its partners, and the stars aligning correctly, means it might happen.”

Full article here.

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