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Intel redesigns transistors for faster computers The switches, known as transistors, have
typically been flat. By adding a third dimension _ "fins" that jut up
from the base _ Intel will be able to make the transistors and chips
smaller. Think of how skyscrapers address the need for more office space
when land is scarce.
The company said the new structure will let
chips run on less power. That gives Intel its best shot yet at cracking
the growing markets for chips used in smartphones and tablet computers.
Intel has been weak there because its current chips use too much power.
Chips with the 3-D transistors will be in full production this year and appear in computers in 2012.
Intel
has been talking about 3-D, or "tri-gate," transistors for nearly a
decade, and other companies are experimenting with similar technology.
The announcement is noteworthy because Intel has figured out how to
manufacture the transistors cheaply in mass quantities.
Transistors
are at the center of the digital universe. They're the workhorses of
modern electronics, tiny on/off switches that regulate electric current.
They're to computers what synapses are to the human nervous system.
Transistors
operate in the shadows, but they're integral to daily life. And they
need to shrink, so that computers can get smaller and smarter.
A
chip can have a billion transistors, all laid out side by side in a
single layer, as if they were the streets of a city. Chips have no
"depth" _ until now. On Intel's chips, the fins will jut up from that
streetscape, sort of like bridges or overpasses.
However, Intel's
advance doesn't mean it can add a whole second layer of transistors to
the chip, or start stacking layers into a cube. That remains a distant
but hotly pursued goal of the industry, as cubic chips could be much
faster that flat ones while consuming less power.
The demand is
there for smartphones that deliver the Internet in our pockets,
supercomputers that beat human champions at "Jeopardy!," and other feats
of computer wizardry that would have been impossible in the 1970s.
Processors then could only hold several thousand transistors. Today they
hold billions.
The latest change isn't something that consumers
will be able to see because it happens at a microscopic level. But
analysts call it one of the most significant shifts in silicon
transistor design since the integrated circuit was invented more than
half a century ago.
"When I looked at it, I did a big, `Wow.'
What we've seen for decades now have been evolutionary changes to the
technology. This is definitely a revolutionary change," said Dan
Hutcheson, a longtime semiconductor industry watcher and CEO of VLSI
Research Inc., who was briefed ahead of time on Intel's announcement.
For
consumers, the fact that Intel's transistors will have a third
dimension means that they can expect a continuation of Moore's Law. The
famous axiom, pronounced in 1965 by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, has
guided the computer industry's efforts and given us decade after decade
of cheaper and more powerful computers.
The core of Moore's
prediction is that computer performance will double every two years as
the number of transistors on the chips roughly doubles as well. The
progress has been threatened as transistors have been shrunken down to
absurd proportions, and engineers have confronted physical limitations
on how much smaller they can go. Controlling power leakage is a central
concern.
For Intel, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif., the
change is a reminder of its leadership in advanced semiconductor
technology and its incentive to keep Moore's Law alive.
Previous
major changes have focused on new materials that can be used for
transistors, not entire redesigns of the transistors themselves.
"People have been trying to avoid changing the structure," Hutcheson said.
Other
semiconductor companies argue that there's still life to be squeezed
from the current design of transistors. Hutcheson agrees, but said
Intel's approach should allow it to advance at least a generation ahead
of its rivals, which include IBM Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
The reduced power consumption addresses a key need for Intel.
The
performance expectations and power requirements for PCs are much higher
than they are for phones and tablet computers, so Intel's dominance in
PC chips doesn't necessarily lead to success in mobile devices. Even
Intel's Atom-based chips, which are designed for mobile devices, have
been criticized as too power hungry.
The new technology will be used for Intel's PC chips and its Atom line.
Technological
leadership alone won't guarantee success, however, as Intel has learned
in repeated attempts at cracking the mobile market.
Other chip
makers such as Qualcomm Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. have entrenched
partnerships with cellphone makers, and there is suspicion about the
performance of Intel's chips in mobile devices.
"When it comes to
the mobile market, they have their work cut out for them," Hutcheson
said of Intel. But "this gives you the transistors to build the next
great system."
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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