“Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, has overhauled the basic building block of the information age, paving the way for a new generation of faster and more energy-efficient processors,” John Markoff reports for The New York Times.
Markoff reports, “Company researchers said the advance represented the most significant change in the materials used to manufacture silicon chips since Intel pioneered the modern integrated-circuit transistor more than four decades ago.”
Markoff reports, “The microprocessor chips, which Intel plans to begin making in the second half of this year, are designed for computers but they could also have applications in consumer devices. Their combination of processing power and energy efficiency could make it possible, for example, for cellphones to play video at length — a demanding digital task — with less battery drain.”
“Currently much of the industry is building chips in what is known as 90-nanometer technology. At that scale, about 1,000 transistors would fit in the width of a human hair. Intel began making chips at 65 nanometers in 2005, about nine months before its closest competitors,” Markoff reports. “Now the company is moving on to the next stage of refinement, defined by a minimum feature size of 45 nanometers… Intel said it had already manufactured prototype microprocessor chips in the new 45-nanometer process…”
“The work by Intel overcomes a potentially crippling technical obstacle that has arisen as a transistor’s tiny switches are made ever smaller: their tendency to leak current as the insulating material gets thinner. The Intel advance uses new metallic alloys in the insulation itself and in adjacent components,” Markoff reports. “Word of the announcement, which is planned for Monday, touched off a war of dueling statements as I.B.M. rushed to announce that it was on the verge of a similar advance.”
“Intel’s advance was in part in finding a new insulator composed of an alloy of hafnium, a metallic element that has previously been used in filaments and electrodes and as a neutron absorber in nuclear power plants. They will replace the use of silicon dioxide — essentially the material that window glass is made of, but only several atoms thick,” Markoff reports. “Intel is also shifting to new metallic alloy materials — it is not identifying them specifically — in transistor components known as gates, which sit directly on top of the insulator. These are ordinarily made from a particular form of silicon called polysilicon.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “David G.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Intel announces breakthrough ‘Penryn’ processor family; slated for production in second half 2007 – January 27, 2007
Intel processor breakthrough biggest chip advance in 40 years; coming before year end – January 27, 2007
Intel pledges 80-core processor within five years – September 26, 2006
Apple chose well: Anandtech – Intel Core 2 Duo ‘the fastest desktop processor we’ve ever tested’ – July 14, 2006
Apple chose well: Intel poised to take massive lead across the board over AMD – June 07, 2006
Intel first to demonstrate working 45nm chips – January 26, 2006
Intel-based Macs running both Mac OS X and Windows will be good for Apple – June 10, 2005
Apple to use Intel microprocessors beginning in 2006, all Macs to be Intel-based by end of 2007 – June 06, 2005
… and no, Steve did NOT know in 2005 already
When will these chips being into the Macintosh ?
Moonie
Im glad that Apple jumped on board the Intel bus, because its lead to some seriously awesome computing advances.
“Their combination of processing power and energy efficiency could make it possible, for example, for cellphones to play video at length…”
iPhone 2.0
Anyone else thinking this?
Can’t anyone type on Saturday mornings?!
macnut
Try 1.0
non
Okay… sounds good. But the way I read it, it sounds like Intel is replacing silicon (virtually free) with an alloy called hafnium (ever heard of that?) that is used to absorb neutrons in atomic reactors. How much does this stuff cost? So, I wonder what the change is going to do to the average cost of these processors.
Lazy European wrote: “… and no, Steve did NOT know in 2005 already.”
———-
You haven’t a clue as to what Steve Jobs knew in 2005.
You don’t know the history of what Steve knew in 2005. I do.
Intel and IBM, just as I would suspect. These two companies do serious and deep research and are leaders in the device physics field. But I am still glad that Apple chose to go with Intel and not IBM. Of course, Apple may have had to chose Intel anyway, because it was the best — perhaps, the only — way to get to eat Microsoft’s lunch.
So, IBM is working with AMD — eh? I wonder if IBM will screw over AMD as they did with Apple, by making AMD’s interests secondary to IBM’s high end Mainframe computers. That’s another reason to be glad that Apple jumped on the Intel bandwagon.
Spark –
If you’ve ever worked around nuclear power, you’ve heard of it. Hafnium is used to make the control rods in nuke reactors – they are inserted into or withdrawn from the core to control reactor criticality. It’s fairly dangerous to cut or mold, as well, so it is bound to be pretty expensive. Perhaps if chip manufacturers begin to make it in quantity, the price can be controlled. I can’t imagine you’d need much for a chip matrix – the tooling would probably be the hard (and expensive) part.
SCRAM THE HARD DRIVE!
Hell, this was obvious. Anyone knows that hafnium would reduce power consumption by half. Just look at its name.
Wingsy
LOL!
From my superficial wandering around the web, Hafnium occurs naturally but most of it is produced as a by-product of Zirconium refinement.
Speaking personally, I’ve never heard of Hafnium until today so I had to check whether someone was just inventing elements to make my sketchy knowledge of science even more crapulous.
I’m surprised MDN did not make note of the final paragraph:
“Intel said it had already manufactured prototype microprocessor chips in the new 45-nanometer process that run on three major operating systems: Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/technology/27chip.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
Wake me up when they figure out how to use tercium and quartium. Oh wait, maybe we should go the other way cause they got the pentium already. Okay…fullnium?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve heard it all before. “Our new chip will operate at twice the speed at half the power!” Yeah, right. No one has delivered on the promise. No one. So you know what, my pretties? I’m going to go take a long dirt nap. Hold a seance, would you, when Intel delivers? Or when Christ returns. One event is definitely going to happen before the other.
MDN
You always correct outsiders for using MAC for Mac.
This insider is correcting you for using I.B.M. when it should be IBM.
“Just a little research …” as you would say to other journalists.
MDN word: “side” as in “Don’t let the side down”.
“So, IBM is working with AMD — eh? I wonder if IBM will screw over AMD as they did with Apple, by making AMD’s interests secondary to IBM’s high end Mainframe computers. That’s another reason to be glad that Apple jumped on the Intel bandwagon.”
Wouldn’t surprise me. They did also screw over Motorola with the G4 process, since IBM was only interested in increasing clock speed, while Motorola wanted the vector unit (Altivec).
As soon as IBM decides AMD can’t help them with their new-found Nintendo/Xbox/PSx cause, they’ll ditch them too.
“You always correct outsiders for using MAC for Mac.
This insider is correcting you for using I.B.M. when it should be IBM.”
MDN got pwned
I’m still waiting for the 1.21 jigawatt flux capacitor to arrive in my next Macbook.