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TITLE: ONE BILLION TRANSISTORS ON A CHIP
Intel Touts New Transistors
BetaNews
By David Worthington, BetaNews
June 10th, 2001, 9:27 AM
Intel plans to announce today news of a groundbreaking effort
made by the company's scientists in Hillsboro, Oregon at the
Silicon Nanoelectronics Workshop in Kyoto, Japan. News of the
achievement leaked out to Reuters just two days after an IBM
press release detailed an altered form of silicon. Intel has
engineered what they claim to be the fastest and smallest
transistors ever to be produced.
The chip giant is forecasting the potential to create
microprocessors that contain nearly 1 billion transistors running
at a clock speed of 20 gigahertz. As chips approach that
threshold, the search for a new material to replace silicon
continues. Faster processors open a wide range of possibilities
to software developers for creating powerful, new solutions.
Current chips generally contain transistors that measure 0.18
microns respectfully. In a stark contrast with the latest
technology, Intel's new transistors size in at 0.02 microns.
Moore's Law, calculated by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore,
stipulates that the processing power of silicon chips will
increase exponentially. As silicon has been pushed toward its
physical limits, developments such as shrinking the size of
transistors have extended the validity of Moore's Law.
The new technology will also lead to lower power consumption.
Processors built with these transistors will draw less than 1
volt, as compared to the 1.7 volts required today.
Intel predicts that it will continue to make use of silicon until
2007. Even so, the need for an alternative to silicon remains
inevitable. Reuters reports that a critical component of the
transistors, the silicon dioxide gate, "a layer that prevents the
metal on top from short-circuiting out the silicon underneath
when current is passed through it to make the transistors
function -- are only three atoms thick." Intel's Gerald Marcyk
remarked bluntly, "You can't really scale much lower than three
atoms thick."
With that type of computing power, software will stand as the
only inhibiting factor. Future applications should be able to
comprehend vocal commands, as well as recognize a user's
handwriting. Computers will soon present intelligent solutions
and analysis in order to solve problems. Intel's Marcyk proposes
that, "You log on in the morning and [the computer] gives you two
or three options: done the calculations for you."
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FILENUMBER: 1010
BEGIN_KEYWORDS
ONE BILLION TRANSISTORS ON A CHIP
END_KEYWORDS
DATE: June 2001
TITLE: ONE BILLION TRANSISTORS ON A CHIP
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