Intel’s just announced a huge breakthrough in CPU technology – and no, it’s not Will.i.am’s new jingle. That may not sound exciting, but the speed and power saving performance boosts it’ll give mean laptops, PCs, and even tablets and phones, are about to get even faster – and so quickly, that Intel is even pledging to move faster than Moore’s Law with future silicon. Read on and we’ll explain it all to you.
The processor – the beating heart inside every gadget you own – relies on packing as many transistors as possible onto one die. The more you can stuff in, the quicker your gizmo goes. The 2006 PlayStation 3 uses transistors that measure 60nanometres across inside its Cell processor, while a brand new 2011 iMac uses uses 32nm transistors found in the second gen Intel Core chips.
But until now, limitations have always meant that the transistors all had to be on the same plane. Intel’s new breakthrough, “Tri-Gate”, allows for gates to let current flow across three three sides of a transistor, not one: in effect Intel is stacking transistors on top of each other for the first time – building up to fit more rooms in, urban development style.
The upshot is that Intel is confident it’ll continue to move beyond the pace of the famous “Moore’s Law”, which says that the number of transistors that can be placed in a processor doubles every two years. So confident is the company that at a San Francisco press event today, Intel Fellow Mark Bohr said that Intel could “even improve” on his prediction, and double at a faster rate for years to come.
What can you expect? Intel’s next “Ivy Bridge” chips, stuffed with 22nm transistors (14nm ones will follow), will roll out as Intel Core processors at the end of the year, and you can bet that computers using them will. Be. Blazing. Intel also says that its Atom processors for netbooks and tablets will also benefit from the breakthrough – it’s possible that in a year or two, we could actually see Atom processors appearing in mobile devices and actually competing with ARM powered devices like most smartphones, or slates like the iPad 2. It’s the one area where Intel currently struggles, but with this technology safely patented, it could soon dominate there too.
Confused? Check out the video below. Yes, Bohr looks like he auditioned for Honey I Shrunk The Kids back in the 80s, but give the man a break – he’s a scientist, not a thesp. Now, when can we have an Ivy Bridge MacBook Pro?
