HOT CHIPS CPU Integrated

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06:56 PM, June 07, 2007

Want to find out the state of technology: Look at Penryn and Nehalem ...&nbsp;

code names for the new 45 nano offerings from Intel.

My advice is to wait til the new 45 nano products come out, especially the nehalem technology.&nbsp;

You want fast video streaming;

also, prob. the ability to continue to work on your computer while it is streamingt video (or perhaps just watch on your laptop while you

take notes on your current desktop).

TICK-TOCK means every other year Intel will (on odd years drop from 45 to 32 to 24 to 17 nanos) and (on even years introduce brand new

computer architectures cast in those technologies). Penryn ? will have 2 threads per core for 1 to 8 cores.</p>

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09:10 PM, November 29, 2006</p>

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The term PITCH refers to the distance between pixels or between pins on a device.

Perhaps pitch is the distance between ??? btwn WHAT??? features???</p>

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Feature size is the smallest line you can write on the chip (eg a gate or gate area).</p>

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Feature size in 2002 was 130 nanometers

Chips are generally categorized by their "minimum feature size" -- the dimension of the smallest feature actually constructed in the manufacturing process. This size is continually getting smaller, as chipmakers seek to pack more circuitry into the same space (beyond today's upper limit of 20 million to 30 million transistors).

As of early 2000, the most advanced chips in production have minimum feature sizes of about 180 nanometers, or 180 billionths of a meter. (You will also hear people in the electronics industry talk in terms of "microns," a unit of measure equal to 1000 nanometers, or one millionth of a meter. This has been the standard unit for many years, but it is now being supplanted by nanometers as dimensions shrink to small fractions of a micron. The 180 nanometer feature would also be 0.18 micron.) By 2001, chips with 150 nanometer features will be in production, and 130 nanometer devices will follow by 2002, according to an industry-wide &nbsp;<u>consensus forecast <mooreslaw.php3></u> .

It's difficult to relate a dimension like 150 nanometers to the real world, since there's nothing familiar that's anywhere near that small. One commonly used reference is the typical human hair, which is somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 nanometers across, or roughly 500 times as wide as a 150 nanometer feature.

It might be easier to approach the scale question from the other direction -- the atomic level.

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