Intel's ultra-low power 65nm technology has shown dramatic transistor leakage reduction
Intel claims power breakthrough
/v3-uk/news/2003746/intel-claims-power-breakthrough
21 Sep 2005, Iain Thomson , V3
Intel has announced a new chip manufacturing process which it claims could dramatically cut power consumption, and boost battery life by up to 1,000 per cent.
The breakthrough is a result of the miniaturisation of the transistor etching process. Intel currently manufactures chips at 90 nanometres (a nanometre is one-billionth of a metre) but the new process works at 65 nanometres.
Cutting the physical size of the transistors lowers the amount of power they use. All transistors leak power, even when not in use, but the new process cuts the amount of wastage dramatically.
The chip giant said that the 65 nanometre processors for laptops and mobile phones should be available over the next few years.
"The number of transistors on some chips exceeds one billion, and it is clear that improvements made for individual transistors can multiply into huge benefits for the entire device," said Mark Bohr, senior fellow and director of Intel Process Architecture and Integration.
"Test chips made on Intel's ultra-low power 65nm process technology have shown transistor leakage reduction roughly 1,000 times from our standard process.
"This translates into significant power savings for people who will use devices based on this technology."
Intel is also working on other improvements, including a second version of its strained silicon technology.
This reduces the interference in the flow of electrons through a chip and significantly boosts performance while only raising production costs by a few per cent.
© Incisive Media Investments Limited 2010, Published by Incisive Financial Publishing Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, are companies registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 04252091 & 04252093
Do you agree?
They all use chips
Soundcards, screens, and CD-ROMs use chips, too. this isn't just cpu-relevant, it's relevant to all chips, if i am interpreting correctly.
1000 percent,overall? Yes, doubt it. But, I'd be happy with 100%. :-)
Posted by ross mohan, 23 Sep 2005
More of a server benefit
If you're running a datacenter with racks upon racks of servers, each of which is barebones (no CD-ROM, monitor, etc.), and which is running at peak capacity, you can see where the power savings is a benefit. Even a "measly" 100% CPU power savings can save a company thousands of dollars a year in electric bills.
Posted by Andy Kotlinski, 23 Sep 2005
it's 1000% NOT 1000x
that is, a factor of ten improvement in battery life.
Still a mouthful I'd say!
Posted by Alfredo Knecht, 26 Sep 2005
Explain Please
Ok so the cpu is going to use a lot less power. The screen, soundcard, CD-ROM and hard drives are still going to use the same amount of power so how does this breakthrough from Intel cut the power consumtion from these components to give me 1000 per cent more battery life? Seems that the hype merchants are not being interogated properly. The amount of power that the cpu uses is being cut dramatically - no mean feat- but that does not equate to 1000 percent more overall battery life.
Posted by Stephen Hill, 22 Sep 2005
How exactly do cu
How exactly do cut something by 1000 times?
You could make it 1/1000th of the the original though is this what they mean?
Will thier chips use 1/10 watt instead of 100 watts?
I do wish people wouldn't bandy about meaningless figures just to grab attention and deal in real numbers instead.
Posted by J Roberts, 23 Sep 2005
Current power needs limit performance
The biggest problem with current-generation chips is power dissipation. They run too hot, and we can't raise the clock speed without cooking them, even with fancy cool systems.
A 1000x reduction in power consumption would be *huge*. This would make it possible to continue reducing die sizes *and* increase clock speeds at the same time.
Posted by Eric, 24 Sep 2005