Intel claims biggest chip breakthrough in 40 years, IBM close behind

Stuart Corner
Saturday, 27 January 2007 13:15

Your IT - Home IT

Intel has announced what it claims is "one of the biggest advancements in fundamental transistor design" in 40 years, saying it will enable it to build chips with 45 nanometre transistors later this year. IBM has made a similar announcement but does not plan to have its first chips out until 2008.

Intel says it already has the world's first 45nm CPUs in-house and that these are the first of at least fifteen 45nm processor products under development. Intel claims that its 45nM transistors - 30,000 of which would fit on a pin head - "significantly improve performance to deliver faster multi-core processors that consume less power." Intel says its demonstration of a functional 45nm CPU is proof of at least a 12 month lead over the rest of the semiconductor industry.

In an move perhaps designed to stop Intel grabbing all the limelight, IBM announced shortly after Intel that, working with AMD and its other development partners Sony and Toshiba, it had "found a way to construct a critical part of the transistor with a new material, clearing a path toward chip circuitry that is smaller, faster and more power-efficient than previously thought possible. "

It added "the technology can be incorporated into existing chip manufacturing lines with minimal changes to tooling and processes, making it economically viable."

Dr TC Chen, vice president of Science and Technology, IBM Research confirmed the magnitude of the new development saying "After more than ten years of effort, we now have a way forward. With chip technology so pervasive in our everyday lives, this work will benefit people in many ways."

IBM said it had incorporated the technology into its semiconductor manufacturing line in East Fishkill, New York, and would apply it to products with chip circuits as small as 45nM starting in 2008.