Intel unveils new ‘3D’ chips

A new generation of chips will use a 3D structure to pack more computing power into smaller spaces and allow ‘Moore’s Law’ to continue, Intel said today

Intel has unveiled a new design for chips that will allow more processing power to be crammed into smaller spaces, cost less and use less power. The new development is set to allow the exponential growth in computing power, described by ‘Moore’s Law’ to continue for another generation.

Intel has been working on the technology since 2002, but the products will not appear in new computers, tablets and mobile phones until towards the end of this year.

The company made the announcement at a press conference in San Francisco where Intel senior fellow Mark Bohr calls the new “tri-gate” technology a “major technical breakthrough and historic innovation” in microprocessors.

First observed by former Intel chairman Gordon Moore in 1965, Moore’s Law states that chip capacity, which effectively dictates computing power, will double every two years. Although it has been true for the last 50 years, it had been thought that technology was reaching its limits. Now Intel’s 22-nanometer manufacturing process will be used to make a microprocessor codenamed Ivy Bridge. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. Intel currently makes chips with 32-nanometer circuitry.

The term ‘3D’ refers to the transistor units that are the fundamentals of computer chips. Currently their structure only permits electrons to move two-dimensionally from one side to another, but now Intel says upward and downward flow will be possible as well. Chips will be taller but “leak” less current and consequently use less power. Intel will be able to reduce power consumption by more than 50 percent in a single generation, Bohr said, while also providing a 37 percent leap in performance.

Intel said the last equivalent breakthrough was in 2007. Although no products have yet been announced, better 3D graphics and multitasking could be among the first developments to appear.

Moore said in a statement, “For years we have seen limits to how small transistors can get. This change in the basic structure is a truly revolutionary approach and one that should allow Moore’s Law, and the historic pace of innovation, to continue."

Source: The Telegraph