| Intel demos 32nm chip and next-generation
Nehalem architecture
19 September, 2007
By Liam Lahey
Intel Corp. recently introduced outlined new products,
chip designs, and manufacturing technologies that
it says will enable the company to continue its pace
of product and technology leadership.
Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini showed attendees
at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco the
working chips built using 32-nanometer (nm) technology,
with transistors so small that more than four million
of them could fit on the period at the end of this
sentence. Intel said its 32nm process technology is
on track to begin production in 2009.
Otellini also described the near-term advantages
computer users would experience with Intel's upcoming
45nm family of Penryn chips. The 45nm processors are
said to be available in November. The company also
demonstrated the next-generation chip architecture
codenamed Nehalem, due out next year.
"Our tick-tock strategy of alternating next
generation silicon technology and a new microprocessor
architecture -- year after year -- is accelerating
the pace of innovation in the industry," Otellini
said. "Tick-tock is the engine creating today's
most advanced technologies and keeps them coming out
at a rapid cadence. Our customers and computer users
around the world can count on Intel's innovation engine
and manufacturing capability to deliver state-of-the-art
performance that rapidly becomes mainstream."
Penryn, along with the Silverthorne line of 45nm
processors (available next year) would have the small
feature size, low-power requirements and high-performance
capabilities to meet a wide variety of computing needs
from handheld Internet computers to high-end servers.
Intel said it would quickly ramp the technology with
plans to introduce 15 new 45nm processors by the end
of the year and another 20 in the first quarter of
2008.
"We expect our Penryn processors to provide
up to a 20 percent performance increase while improving
energy efficiency," he said. "Intel's breakthrough
45nm silicon process technology allows us to provide
low-cost, extremely low-power processors for innovative
small form factor devices while delivering high-performance,
multi-core, multi-featured processors used in the
most advanced systems."
Looking to 2008, the Nehalem architecture (due out
in late '08) is touted to be the first to use the
QuickPath Interconnect system architecture. QuickPath
includes integrated memory controller technology and
improved communication links between system components
to significantly improve overall system performance.
"Nehalem is an entirely new architecture that
leverages Intel's Core Microarchitecture, bringing
leading-edge performance advantages, power efficiency
and important new server features to market just a
year after Intel leads the industry to 45nm technology,"
Otellini remarked.
Other advanced Intel technologies expected to come
to market included the world's first 300mm wafer built
using next-generation 32nm process technology. The
development of advanced test chips serves as a critical
milestone in the chipmaker's march toward high-volume
manufacturing of 32nm process technology, officials
said. Processors built on 32nm technology are due
out in 2009.
Otellini also announced that a version of a Penryn
dual-core processor operating at 25 watts would be
available on the upcoming Montevina platform, which
includes Intel's mobile WiMAX silicon. Several equipment
manufacturers are already planning to introduce Montevina-based
notebook PCs starting next year when the platform
is introduced, Intel said. Overall, WiMAX is expected
to reach more than 1 billion people worldwide by 2012.
In other Intel news, executives promised with the
rollout of WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave
Access) would come ongoing enhancements to the Centrino
Duo processor for laptops and a new category of Internet-connected
devices that Intel said would usher in a new era of
reliable broadband-connected wireless computing.
"Mobile users have an insatiable appetite for
and want even more mobility, connectivity and a full
Internet on their smaller devices," said David
Perlmutter, senior vice president and general manager,
for Intel's mobility group. "Intel will satisfy
those needs by delivering our latest 45nm processors
and WiMAX to notebooks, as well as Mobile Internet
Devices (MIDs) in 2008, and also using some of these
technologies to bring an affordable computing and
Internet experience to emerging communities and economies
around the world."
To that end, officials also said in the first half
of 2008, Intel would deliver UMPCs (ultra-mobile PCs)
-- codenamed Menlow -- that would use 10 times less
power compared to the first UMPCs on the market. Further
out, Intel's next-generation platform -- codenamed
Moorestown -- would be designed to increase battery
life by reducing idle power by 10 times versus Menlow.
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