Intel turns up heat on AMD with 45nm Penryn production

Stan Beer
Friday, 26 October 2007 16:07

Your IT - Home IT

Barely a month after AMD shipped its long awaited 65 nanometer Barcelona quad-core processor, its larger rival Intel has tightened the screws once again with the commencement of production of its 45nm Penryn range of processors.

With the 45 nm process, Intel, which will produce the new smaller chips out of a new US$3 billion plant in Arizona, will once again have a significant advantage over its Silicon Valley neighbor in terms of production capacity, performance and energy efficiency.

AMD, which not too long ago was nipping at Intel's heals and threatening to take 30% X86 processor market share, is now once again playing catchup to Intel in the technology production stakes, having moved from 90nm to 65nm production less than a year ago.

Intel's 45nm Penryn chips are expected to be more energy efficient - increasingly a requirement by industry - as well as faster and cheaper to produce. With Intel cranking them out by the tens of thousands each month Penryn, a Core 2 Duo chip, is expected to be widely available on server, desktop and notebook platforms by the end of the first quarter of 2008.

Now that Intel is well and truly in the 45nm game, AMD is once again behind the eight-ball by about six months, having previously announced plans to commence shipping 45nm chips from its Dresden plant by the middle of 2008.

Meanwhile Intel plans to move to 32nm microarchitecture by 2010 and 22nm by 2011.