Power cuts key for Intel at 65 nanometers
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Intel Corp.&#39;s 65-nanometer process technology will not be very different from its 90-nanometer process technology, which should help make for a smoother transition between the
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The manufacturing technology can result in faster chips without increasing power requirements, say the companies. By Darrell Dunn.
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(InfoWorld) - Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) began selling its top chip for desktop PCs made with a 65-nanometer design on Tuesday, continuing its efforts toÂ keep up with IntelÂ as the industry migrates from 90nm design to a faster, more efficient generation of processors. By manufacturing its dual-core Athlon 64 X2 chip on the smaller geometry, AMD will be able to increase manufacturing output while improving the chips' performance and power efficiency, said Jack Huynh, a market development manager for AMD. Some PC vendors are selling the new chip in computers already, and by the first quarter of 2007 that list will include Acer, Dell, Founder Electronics, Hewlett-Packard, Packard Bell, and Tsinghua Tongfang Co., according to AMD. The move to 65nm manufacturing is crucial for AMD as the company strives to keep up with aÂ flurry of new processors from Intel. Intel had a rough year in 2006, losing ground to AMD in market share, but has rallied in recent months. The companyÂ launched its Core 2 Duo familyÂ of desktop chips in July and itsÂ quad-core Core 2 Extreme in November. Intel switched its chip manufacturing plants to a smaller architecture months ago, and already sells more 65nm chips than 90nm chips. A chip made with 65nm process technology has smaller features -- such as transistors and the wires that connect them -- than a chip made with 90nm technology, said Rob Willoner, a technology analyst with Intel's technology and manufacturing group. That progression is the engine that drives Moore's Law, the prediction that the number of processors on a microprocessor will double every 18 months. One nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, meaning that the wires on 65nm design chips are far slimmer than human hairs. Minuscule as that is, chip vendors already have plans to shrink the parts even smaller.Â Intel has already announced plansÂ to use chip features of 45nm by 2007, 32nm by 2009 and 22nm by 2011. As chip features continue to shrink, engineers struggle harder to take each new step. But as long as customers demand smaller, more efficient computers, there's plenty of economic incentive for the process to continue, he said. "There's bound to be an end at some point, but we can't see it yet," Willoner said. "At one point, people said it was 1 micron, which is 1,000nm, but the industry passed that without blinking about a decade ago. Now some people are saying it's 5nm. I don't see it happening before 2020 or 2025, and by then we could have radically different technologies to compensate." AMD chose to apply the new "Rev G" 65nm design to its high-end, dual-core desktop chip first because the company's midrange, single-core Athlon and Sempron chips are already fairly efficient, running at 62 watts using a 90nm design, said AMD's Huynh. The Athlon 64 X2 operated at a high 110 watts when it was first launched in June 2005, but this migration will bring it down to just 65 watts, he said. AMD will continue to produce both 90nm and 65nm Athlon 64 X2 chips until it phases the larger-design chips out completely by the second half of 2007. Next, AMD plans to apply the 65nm design to its single-core Athlon and Sempron chips, shrinking them by the end of 2007. And the company has already begun work on the next step, shrinking its chips to a 45nm design, although AMD did not give a specific date for that goal. AMD is selling the 65nm Athlon 64 X2 chips at prices of $301 for a 2.6GHz 5000-series chip, $271 for the 2.5GHz 4800 series, $214 for the 2.3GHz 4400 series, and $169 for the 2.1GHz 4000 series, all priced in lots of 1,000. Â
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Advanced Micro Devices managed to reduce the maximum thermal output of its newly released 90 nanometer Opteron server processors by 25 percent compared to the previous generation, the company said Wednesday.
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Athlon 64 X2 line extended AMD this morning rolled out its 65nm Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processors, as expected. The chips are pitched as "energy efficient" products, and come in at the same price as their 90nm equivalents.â¦
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It's becoming clear that the low-power Silverthorne processor is more than a new chip. It is a building block for Intel's future road map.
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By JORDAN ROBERTSON SAN JOSE, Calif. - Intel Corp. has designed a computer chip that promises to perform calculations as quickly an entire data center - while consuming as much energy as a light bulb.
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Intel continued its charge into its wireless future with news of its next generation Pentium M processor. Based on the 65-nanometer process technology, Intel is working on its &quot;Napa&quot; platform
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New quad-core CPUs running at an energy-efficient 50 watts per processor will hit the market Monday.
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Getting coarse with Intel AMD's elaborate and lengthy four-core processor striptease continues this week with some geeky revelations around power saving technology.â¦
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Texas Instruments Inc. engineers and MIT researchers say they've designed a new chip that consumes less power and can be used in devices as varied as medical implants and sensors that detect enemy tanks.
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Newest Efficeon processor also offers higher frequency using less power.
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Intel will try to further cut power consumption in its next generation of chips by using improved strained silicon, along with transistors that block power to other circuits, and other added features.
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Opteron to gain power preservation tech - and other goodies
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Intel Corp. has designed a computer chip that promises to perform calculations as quickly an entire data center &#151; while consuming as much energy as a light bulb.
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SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Contradicting fears that the semiconductor industry's pace of development is slowing, Intel Corp. announced it has achieved a milestone in shrinking the size of transistors that will power its next-generation chips.
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In an effort to help enterprise users get a handle on power and heat issues associated with new server designs that pack more processing punch in smaller spaces, Advanced Micro Devices on Monday announced that systems built with its 32/64-bit Opteron