2.9 billion transistors in a space the size of your fingernail!
As most Atomicans would already likely know, Moore's law predicts a linear increase in transistor count over a set period to increase processing power, something that has stayed true for many decades - and something that Intel have their heart set on keeping around for some time.
While their manufacturing process is currently based around a 45nm structure for their mass-manufactured chips and is soon to move to 32nm, they've just shown off a 22nm wafer of chips that cram 2.9 billion transistors into an incredibly small fingernail-sized space.
The 22nm tech isn't mature enough yet to run a full CPU, but they've created logic circuits and SRAM memory onto the wafer that should provide plenty of practise for when the CPUs are finally ready to be created, letting Intel work out the kinks of the process without the expense of making the new design first.
Smaller manufacturing processes bring about a reduced need for voltage, and with that brings a lower heat production - so these chips might even prove more overclockable than the already impressive 45nm CPUs!
They'll be out in 2011 (keeping to the Tick-Tock scheduling), so head to Wired to check out a little more about this tiny tiny tech.
Issue: 107 | December, 2009