| Breakthrough in Transistor Technology |
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| World Affairs Talk | |
| Wednesday, 21 February 2007 | |
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Both the companies said, they worked out a way to replace vital materials of the transistors of computer chips that begun leaking too much electric current as the circuitry on those chips gets smaller. Technology experts expressed view in quite a positive note. They said it is the most dramatic overhaul of transistor technology for computer chips since the 1960s, and is crucial in allowing semiconductor companies to continue making ever-smaller devices that are also ‘energy efficient’. Semiconductor experts said that Intel and IBM scientists have concocted a clever way to maintain the industry's frenetic development pace. Companies are enthusiastically trying to discover new ways to hold on to Moore's Law, the 1965 prediction by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a chip should double about every two years. Other than this two big firms, few other big shots were also involved in the process. This achievement also gives a boost to the competition between Intel and rival chipmaker ‘Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’, which helped IBM on developing the technology along with electronics makers Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. So far, chip development has generally advanced according to Moore's Law, leading to the creation of faster and more powerful processors that also give off less heat and are cheaper to run. But scientists in recent years have reported serious problems in stopping electric current from leaking out of the tiniest chip parts, threatening to halt the march of Moore's Law. The problem is that the silicon dioxide used for more than 40 years as an insulator inside transistors has been shaved so thin that an increasing amount of current is seeping through, wasting electricity and generating unnecessary heat. It seems, this problem is solved for now. Intel and IBM said they discovered a way to replace that material with various metals in parts called the gate, which turns the transistor on and off, and the gate dielectric, an insulating layer, which helps improve transistor performance and retain more energy. Intel said new materials help to provide a 20-percent enhance in transistor performance. IBM on the other hand did not release any specifics of its project. Intel appears the farthest along in bringing a product based on the technology to market; the Santa Clara-based company said it has created working microprocessors using the new materials that will go into mass production in the second half of 2007. Intel also said the chips would be built using its new manufacturing process that involves shrinking parts of the chips down to 45 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, from the 65-nanometer process which the company currently uses. The advanced manufacturing process allows Intel to shrink the size of the circuitry on its chips and pack more transistors onto a single sliver of silicon at a lower cost. While IBM will not sell the chips by themselves, the Armonk, based company said it would begin selling servers with chips using the technology in 2008. Sunnyvale-based AMD said it is not disclosing now the date it expects to use the technology in its own chips, but said it plans to introduce its own 45-nanometer products in mid-2008. This achievement gives the entire chip industry a new life in terms of Moore's Law, in all three of the big metrics - performance, power consumption and transistor density. It opens the door to some pretty rapid improvements. This is indeed a very big transaction for the industry. Intel will probably be the first to have this chip in production, but IBM could potentially have a density advantage compared with Intel's scheme. -End- Share & Bookmark             |
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