Great, now I won't have to learn Erlang for a few more years
Intel Reinvents Transistors Using New 3-D Structure
81–90 of 104 posts
Re: Intel Reinvents Transistors Using New 3-D Structure
#82Anyone care to explain this to a normal person? :)
Re: Intel Reinvents Transistors Using New 3-D Structure
#83I think this will mostly help increase the life expectancy of the Moore's Law by another 10 years or so. When we'll get to 11nm or whatever is the limit, we'll just start stacking layers of transistors on each other. That will only work until the chips become too thick, though.
Intel is projecting to be at 10nm in 2015, way ahead of the industry lithography roadmaps published five or ten years ago. Below 10nm, Intel and other fabricators will start looking beyond CMOS, perhaps to carbon based structures.
I wouldn't say way ahead. They are about a generation ahead.
When Intel was at 45, the ARM makers were 65. Intel at 32, ARM makers at 40/45.
When Intel will be at 22. ARM makers will be at 28/32. When they'll be at 10nm, ARM will be at 14nm using IBM's foundry.
Re: Intel Reinvents Transistors Using New 3-D Structure
#84"Moore's Law" is mentioned 14 times.
Re: Intel Reinvents Transistors Using New 3-D Structure
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is orthogonal. An ARM Cortex (or GPU, or whatever) on this process would see similar gains. It's also worth pointing out that current Atoms in the market are still 45nm parts, not even 32nm. Intel, for obvious reasons, tends to prioritize production of high-margin desktop and server CPUs over low-margin embedded parts. Really, this announcement isn't about ARM-based vs. Intel-based SoC designs. I think it's clea…
> This is about Intel cementing and extending its complete and total dominance of high end digital logic fabrication. Given that, (and given that Intel has been dominant in process technology for some time now) I've always wondered why Intel doesn't do fabrication for third party, high-performance/high-margin/high-power-budget products that don't directly compete with Intel's main CPU product line. Networking/telecom…
They are going to fab some FPGAs for a company called Achronix: http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4210263/Intel-to-fab...
I've worked with audio equipment that uses FPGAs, CPLDs, and DSPs for various purposes, and being stuck on relatively-ancient processes makes that equipment generate a lot more heat and fan noise than would be necessary with DSPs and FPGAs on a modern process.
Re: Intel Reinvents Transistors Using New 3-D Structure
#86Anyone care to explain this to a normal person? :)
It's building electronic components vertically instead of laid out flat (think of a book stood on an edge rather than laid down, kind of). That has two advantages - they take up less room and they don't leak so much electricity to the silicon that they're sitting on.
Re: Intel Reinvents Transistors Using New 3-D Structure
#87Anyone care to explain this to a normal person? :)
It's building electronic components vertically instead of laid out flat (think of a book stood on an edge rather than laid down, kind of). That has two advantages - they take up less room and they don't leak so much electricity to the silicon that they're sitting on.
Thank you! :D
Re: Intel Reinvents Transistors Using New 3-D Structure
#88I think this will mostly help increase the life expectancy of the Moore's Law by another 10 years or so. When we'll get to 11nm or whatever is the limit, we'll just start stacking layers of transistors on each other. That will only work until the chips become too thick, though.
Intel is projecting to be at 10nm in 2015, way ahead of the industry lithography roadmaps published five or ten years ago. Below 10nm, Intel and other fabricators will start looking beyond CMOS, perhaps to carbon based structures.
Well Intel was hoping to hit 10Ghz with the Pentium 4 & we know how that worked out. Perhaps they'll hit 10nm in 2015, but a "small delay" in new process technology usually seems to be "12+ months".
Re: Intel Reinvents Transistors Using New 3-D Structure
#89Anyone care to explain this to a normal person? :)
The process causes the gate to be exposed to a larger surface area of the source, thus allowing it to have greater control. How? by going 3D. Why? Think of it as a heatsink. If your heatsink was just a flat surface, it would suck. But because it has fins (or pins, or whatever 3d shapes that come out of it), it has greater exposure to ambient air.
Re: Intel Reinvents Transistors Using New 3-D Structure
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting that Intel is seeking to fabricate ARM chips for Apple. I presume that Intel is pitching their best lithography process tech, i.e. 22nm. If Intel wrests Apples ARM CPU fabrication business away from Samsung - who competes with Apple on smartphones - then Intel would become a world leader in ARM CPU fabrication and pay ARM plenty of licensing fees! Hardly the end of the world for ARM.
The risk would be once Intel is the world's source of ARM CPU's, suddenly ARM's biggest competitor has a chokehold on the market's access to their silicon. It would basically come down to whether Intel chose to embrace ARM, or tried to use the new position to quietly strangle it.
Intel did ARM a while back and got out. Not sure what kind of license they still have.