Saturday, July 5th 2008

Intel Sees a Clear Path to 10nm Fabrication Process

Pat Gelsinger of Intel says that they will be in a position to shrink their chips to a 10 nanometer silicon fabrication process within the next ten years.

Referring to Intel co-founder Gordon Moore and his famous law, Gelsinger said: "There was a time where Intel and his colleagues wondered whether they could reach 100nm chips." continued, "But we did do that, and today we see a clear way to get to under 10 nanometers. With Moore's Law we always have about 10 years of visibility into the future, so beyond 10 nanometers, we're not sure how we'll do it".

Gelsinger said that "We are putting more and more of the periodic table onto that silicon scaffolding. Today we use about half of the elements on the periodic table. When [Intel co-founder Robert] Noyce and Moore started, they used six elements, more elements have to be added to facilitate such a shrink".
Source: CHW
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19 Comments on Intel Sees a Clear Path to 10nm Fabrication Process

#1
tkpenalty
Uranium infused CPUs please :p
Posted on Reply
#2
InnocentCriminal
Resident Grammar Amender
10 years? That's not long at all. Zombie Jesus! I'd be 33 years old - scary!
Posted on Reply
#3
Basard
They should change it to "Moore's Theory" now, I think...
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#4
[I.R.A]_FBi
Like how they saw a clear path to 10 Ghz P4's?
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#6
FatForester
[I.R.A]_FBiLike how they saw a clear path to 10 Ghz P4's?
Exactly. :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#7
lemonadesoda
The quantum jump from 45nm to 32nm is pretty impressive, but to go from 32nm to 14nm in a few years is a HUGE change from a materials science point of view. That's going to be tough.

I think it is all good shareholder talk. I also think they will struggle to achieve this, not only from the physics of nano-electronics, but also from the optics of trying to "press" such a small die.

... oh, and a rebuff, to AMD's chipset roadmap. If Intel's roadmap is 10 years and to 10nm, makes AMD look like amateurs.

i HOPE they can do it. But unlike the shrinks from 90nm to 65 to 45nm, Intel now faces two currently unsolved problems. (Unsolved from a practical, not theoretic, point of view)
Posted on Reply
#8
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
lemonadesoda... oh, and a rebuff, to AMD's chipset roadmap. If Intel's roadmap is 10 years and to 10nm, makes AMD look like amateurs.
AMD is being a little more realistic. :)
Posted on Reply
#9
lemonadesoda
btarunrAMD is being a little more realistic. :)
Realistic, but boring. Their offering is a few overclocking tweaks. YAWN.
Posted on Reply
#10
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
lemonadesodaRealistic, but boring. Their offering is a few overclocking tweaks. YAWN.
BTW, that's not a PR.
Posted on Reply
#11
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
the hardest part is deciding how to measure them. once they hit 10nm, its hardly exciting to have a countdown to 1. it'll be 1000µm or something.
Posted on Reply
#12
Morgoth
Fueled by Sapphire
thats becus netburst was limited to 4ghz
[I.R.A]_FBiLike how they saw a clear path to 10 Ghz P4's?
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#13
WarEagleAU
Bird of Prey
If its 10 years for Intel, give AMD 2 more years to catch up, unless they make some major changes in their fabs by then. They arent too far off (a year tops) from Intels 45nm parts.
Posted on Reply
#14
effmaster
exactly
While I do see the shrinking of the CPUs as a major phenomenon, how are we going to be able to shrink the Desktop PC any further if we keep needing more and more power for the GPUs? I like CPUS that give you more but use less power, but that seems almost nonprevalent when it comes to GPUs
Posted on Reply
#15
acousticlemur
effmasterexactly
While I do see the shrinking of the CPUs as a major phenomenon, how are we going to be able to shrink the Desktop PC any further if we keep needing more and more power for the GPUs? I like CPUS that give you more but use less power, but that seems almost nonprevalent when it comes to GPUs
very true vid cards are getting HUGE lol
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#16
intel igent
lemonadesodaRealistic, but boring. Their offering is a few overclocking tweaks. YAWN.
they also offer a TRUE quadcore CPU ;)
Posted on Reply
#17
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
intel igentthey also offer a TRUE quadcore CPU ;)
and its TRUEly unimpressive :P
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#18
candle_86
good, this means the latest intel chip will be so small that the surface area for the connects will be 100x larger than the die, thank god for heatspreaders
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#19
TheGuruStud
WarEagleAUIf its 10 years for Intel, give AMD 2 more years to catch up, unless they make some major changes in their fabs by then. They arent too far off (a year tops) from Intels 45nm parts.
Aren't those AMD 45nm going to be trickling out in early Q1 or did they get delayed some more?
Last I heard, it was going good.
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