Intel Reinvents the Transistor

[smack Down]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: 0


With the hafnium material serving as the gate, Intel will then replace the polysilicon electrode layer with a metal electrode, the exact alloy used here also being kept secret. As a result, transistors for 45 nm semiconductors starting with Intel's Penryn family will be fabricated at half the size of those used in today's 65 nm Core 2 processors. At the same time, transistor switching power can be reduced by as much as 30%, while still obtaining a performance improvement of as much as 20%.

Aren't gains like that usually the result of the die shrink due to the new process, and not a result of the material being used?

If Intel switched to 45nm from 65nm while still using the same transistor technology, that would have also resulted in the dies being much smaller, using less power, and being faster.

This new technology in the article is bound to do something, but it's hard to tell what it exactly did for performance since it also included a shrinking of the process.

With out the change to the gate when shrinking the transistor size the gate currrent would have increased.

 

[Evadman]

Nifty

 

[Kur]

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070127/20070126005722.html?.v=1

"IBM today announced it has developed a long-sought improvement to the transistor - the tiny on/off switch that serves as the basic building block of virtually all microchips made today...Working with AMD and its other development partners Sony and Toshiba, the company has 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...The technology, called "high-k metal gate," substitutes a new material into a critical portion of the transistor that controls its primary on/off switching function. The material provides superior electrical properties compared to its predecessor, enhancing the transistor's function while also allowing the size of the transistor to be shrunk beyond limits being reached today"
"IBM has inserted the technology into its state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing line in East Fishkill, NY and will apply it to products with chip circuits as small as 45 nanometers (billionths of a meter) starting in 2008"

 

[OS]

heh, they keep saying moore's law is gonna be off soon but then they keep squeezing out another round.

 

[clamum]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: ntdz
Intel is tearing it up the last couple of years, it's awesome to see such great progress made.

Intel fanbois are funny :laugh:

You dumbass.

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: ntdz
Intel is tearing it up the last couple of years, it's awesome to see such great progress made.

Intel fanbois are funny :laugh:

AMD fanbois are always the first to call someone an intel fanboi just because they *gasp* say something nice about Intel. We all know who the fanboi is here.

 

[jlmadyson]

Intel, IBM Separately Reveal Transistor Breakthrough

In dueling announcements, Intel Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. separately say they have solved a puzzle perplexing the semiconductor industry about how to reduce energy loss in microchip transistors as the technology shrinks to the atomic scale.

Each company said it has devised a way to replace problematic but vital materials in the transistors of computer chips that have begun leaking too much electric current as the circuitry on those chips gets smaller.

Technology experts said it's the most dramatic overhaul of transistor technology for computer chips since the 1960s and is crucial in allowing semiconductor companies to continue making ever-smaller devices that are also energy-efficient.


It also ratchets up the competition between Intel and rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which helped IBM develop the technology along with electronics makers Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp.

Semiconductor experts said Intel and IBM scientists have concocted a clever way to maintain the industry's frenetic development pace......

🙂