Friday February 10, 2012 4:26 PM AEST

Atomic MPC > News > Build > CPUs, Motherboards & RAM > Intel demonstrates miniature 22nm tech

Intel demonstrates miniature 22nm tech

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.

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11 Comments

thesorehead Sep 28, 2009 11:02 AM	Whenever I see "smaller, less power usage, same (or better) capability" I think "portable electronics". Moar powerful smartphones and booklets!
TheFrunj Sep 28, 2009 11:07 AM	Netbooks for everyone! Hehe, when hell freezes over :P -JR
cyb3rspy Sep 28, 2009 1:35 PM	Is it starting to get cold? one can only hope....and wait.
TheFrunj Sep 28, 2009 1:47 PM	I'm gonna put a jumper and a heater on - I'll stave it off as long as possible :P
Argotha Sep 30, 2009 2:34 PM	S"maller manufacturing processes bring about a reduced need for voltage, and with that brings a lower heat production" - correct me if I'm wrong but I remember reading somewhere that by ecreasign the size yes it reduces power etc etc, however certain connectors start to fail due to beign so small and require larger voltages to work correctly
TheFrunj Sep 30, 2009 9:10 PM	Argotha, with higher voltage comes higher collisions with the atoms in the crystal lattice inside the silicon, which leads to higher heat that increases the chance of electromigration. Basically as the gaps between circuits and transistors become smaller, any extra voltage (the pressure at which electricity flows) applied can cause the electrons to 'migrate' over to the adjacent transistor, causing errors and instability. It's summarised quite well in this whitepaper: "Reliability and electromigration risk are exacerbated by the shrinking gate oxide and higher power and current densities in the 45nm process node. In particular, the shrinking gate oxide and higher power density will make negative bias temperature instabilities (NBTI) much worse. NBTI is accelerated by higher device temperatures which result from higher density designs, and by higher electrical fields which result from shrinking geometries with fixed voltage levels." http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:uaEB4q7HiJ0J:www.cadence.com/rl/Resources/white_papers/45nm_holistic_wp.pdf+electromigration+in+transistors+45nm&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au Hope that helps!
g__day Oct 1, 2009 4:12 PM	I always thought that smaller size meant more circuits per square inch, meaning power density per square inch raises as the inverse square of the die shrink. So as your power density goes up you have to ask how much current leakage - which goes directly into heat. With a fab shrink,you generally need materials advances that address (reduce) current leakage,else you end up frying your CPU.
Benjagan91 Oct 6, 2009 10:25 AM	I don't believe that we'll get better OCs just from 22nm tech. Yeah it needs less power and puts out less heat... But if the chip is capable of running at 5ghz smoothly (for example), then why wouldn't intel clock it that high? They're not just going to keep making smaller and smaller tech without taking advantage of it's true potential. Overclocking margins will remain the same, they're not going to release 22nm and leave it at 2-3ghz.
Argotha Oct 6, 2009 12:01 PM	Thanks for that, The frunj So basically if they keep the same voltage they will have elctromigration whihc will cause errors and such. So then how will dropping the voltage affect the CPU's itself, (i'm doing/done hsc physics). since the voltage in this case is proportional to restisance (which in this case should be fairly constant) wouldnt it be assumed that there is a minimum current and hence voltage needed to move the electrons around the circuit correctly and with enough speed that it is usable. on teh otherhand am I going to have to wait to do a uni course to begin understanding this stuff? somehow i think i would...
Argotha Oct 6, 2009 12:01 PM	Thanks for that, The frunj So basically if they keep the same voltage they will have elctromigration whihc will cause errors and such. So then how will dropping the voltage affect the CPU's itself, (i'm doing/done hsc physics). since the voltage in this case is proportional to restisance (which in this case should be fairly constant) wouldnt it be assumed that there is a minimum current and hence voltage needed to move the electrons around the circuit correctly and with enough speed that it is usable. on teh otherhand am I going to have to wait to do a uni course to begin understanding this stuff? somehow i think i would...
TheFrunj Oct 6, 2009 1:15 PM	Ah, yeah, there is a minimum voltage required for the current to actually flow through the material - which makes an even bigger headache knowing that the thinner (smaller) the conductors, the higher the resistance!

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Issue: 133 | February, 2012

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