How small can a processor get?

Well, according to the EUV Industry Consortium, real damn small, or at least the process used to make them can be. The EUV Consortium announced yesterday that is online to get the first prototype extreme ultraviolet (EUV for short) lithography

Well, according to the EUV Industry Consortium, real damn small, or at least the process used to make them can be. The EUV Consortium announced yesterday that is online to get the first prototype extreme ultraviolet (EUV for short) lithography process tools together by 2003.

Current techniques for chip manufacturing can achieve .13 micron circuits, but that's massive compared to what EUV-based laser lithography is capable of. Not only should it be able to beat the .1 barrier with ease, it should be able to get much, much smaller - somewhere in the realm of .03 microns. Keep your average processor the same size and you have a massive speed boost - like about 10Ghz worth - not to mention how much miniaturisation you could implement if you were willing to settle for chips with the paltry speed of, ooh, I don't know, say a snail-like 1GHz.

Intel CEO Craig Barret, however, believes that things can happen much faster. After hearing the Consortium's announcements, he commented that there should be working production equipment online by 2003, with full scale production not long after. Indeed, the Consortium - made up of companies like AMD and IBM, as well as institutes such as the Sandia National Laboratory - is already nearly a year ahead of schedule.