Always at the forefront of chip manufacture, Intel is readying its new 32 nanometer (nm) technology for production in 2010 and says it expects to reduce that to just 4nm within the next 13 years.<\/p>\n
Intel’s current chips are made using a 45nm process and from 2010 the company will start shipping Westmere architected chips using a 32nm process.<\/p>\n
The first of the new 32nm chips will integrate CPU and graphics processors into a single package, something that Intel says will reduce power consumption while increasing graphics processing power.<\/p>\n
The first raft of Westmere 32nm chips will be installed in laptops and desktops in the first half of 2010. They are expected to be dual-core CPUs with 4MB cache and will include an integrated memory controller. Intel says that while clock speeds will remain roughly the same as existing processors the performance is expected to be boosted by running two threads on each core.<\/p>\n
The 32nm Westmere chips for laptops will be codenamed Arrandale while the desktop versions will be known as Clarkdale.<\/p>\n
The Westmere architecture is a smaller version of the Nehalem, which is used in the Core i7 desktop and Xeon 5500 server chips. Nehalem’s most significant feature was its integrated memory controller which controls the flow of data to and from the main memory. <\/p>\n
Also expected out early next year is Intel’s Larrabee chip, a unit that combines traditional processing power with a graphical processing unit (GPU). Because graphics processors are built to crunch data very quickly, many chip makers are looking at boosting the power of their processors by giving them access to the GPU’s processing power.<\/p>\n
Beyond 32nm<\/strong><\/p>\n With 32nm chips already heading into production, Intel is already looking well into the future of chipmaking and is expecting to hit a 4nm process within the next 13 years. A nanometer is equal to 1 billionth of a meter.<\/p>\n Intel’s current roadmap for its chip manufacturing lists a 22nm process in 2012 and 4nm technology by 2022.<\/p>\n There are many advantages to smaller chip manufacturing processes in both performance and consumption terms. Part of the benefit is that with the smaller processor more components can be packed onto the same die which improves performance. But smaller architectures also have more room available for additional features to be built into the chips.<\/p>\n