Intel Researchers Build World's Fastest Silicon Transistors
"SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 11, 2001 - Intel Corporation researchers have demonstrated that there are no fundamental barriers to extending Moore's Law for another decade by building the world's fastest silicon transistors. These transistors -- featuring structures just 20 nanometers (nm) in size -- will allow Intel to build microprocessors containing a billion transistors, running at speeds approaching 20 gigahertz and operating at less than one volt in approximately 2007.
The 20 nm transistors, developed by researchers from Intel Labs, are 30 percent smaller and 25 percent faster than the industry's current fastest transistors, also developed by Intel researchers within the last year. (Note: A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter). Smaller transistors are faster, and fast transistors are the key building block for fast microprocessors, the brains of computers and countless other smart devices. These transistors will be the basis of Intel's 45 nanometer (0.045-micron) process generation, which the company plans to have in production in approximately 2007.
... The gate oxides used to build these transistors are just three atomic layers thick. More than 100,000 of these gate oxide layers would need to be stacked to achieve the thickness of a sheet of paper.
Also significant is that these experimental transistors, while featuring capabilities that are generations beyond the most advanced technologies used in manufacturing today, were built using the same physical structure and materials used in today's computer chips. Intel plans to use a different class of gate oxide material by the time these transistors go into production."
Thorin
"SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 11, 2001 - Intel Corporation researchers have demonstrated that there are no fundamental barriers to extending Moore's Law for another decade by building the world's fastest silicon transistors. These transistors -- featuring structures just 20 nanometers (nm) in size -- will allow Intel to build microprocessors containing a billion transistors, running at speeds approaching 20 gigahertz and operating at less than one volt in approximately 2007.
The 20 nm transistors, developed by researchers from Intel Labs, are 30 percent smaller and 25 percent faster than the industry's current fastest transistors, also developed by Intel researchers within the last year. (Note: A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter). Smaller transistors are faster, and fast transistors are the key building block for fast microprocessors, the brains of computers and countless other smart devices. These transistors will be the basis of Intel's 45 nanometer (0.045-micron) process generation, which the company plans to have in production in approximately 2007.
... The gate oxides used to build these transistors are just three atomic layers thick. More than 100,000 of these gate oxide layers would need to be stacked to achieve the thickness of a sheet of paper.
Also significant is that these experimental transistors, while featuring capabilities that are generations beyond the most advanced technologies used in manufacturing today, were built using the same physical structure and materials used in today's computer chips. Intel plans to use a different class of gate oxide material by the time these transistors go into production."
Thorin
