Intel unveils 22nm Ivy Bridge processor and 3d Transistors

Today in San Francisco Intel have announced the 22nm Ivy Bridge processor which of course will be able to pack more transistors in the same space. This will also be taking advantage of the latest Tri-gate or 3D transistors which are less power hungry and work more efficiently.

To put this into perspective, a human hair is 60,000 nm wide and Intel are just moving towards 22nm although they have also mentioned that the technology could soon be pushed to 14nm. However, 22nm seems good enough for now.

It has been claimed that they will be able to fit 2 times the number of transistors into the same space as the 32nm chips which remains conistent with Moore’s Law as it has been roughly 2 years since the release of the 32nm chips.

Hopefully more details will be released soon as Intel are preparing to make another big announcement later this month.

Here are some lovely pictures of a normal transistor and then a 3d transistor. It should be quite obvious how this can improve the density of transistors (both images are the same scale) but this will also consume less power which is a little harder to explain – all we know currently is it takes advantage of the 3d transistor being able to fully discharge in between each cycle.

Normal transistors:

3D transistors:

[LEFT]Here is a picture of the two side by side seen through a STM:
[CENTER]

An additional benefit of the Intel technology is that it will improve graphics performance, however the first microprocessor using Ivy Bridge will be a server chip available next year. Atom chips will come later.

We apologise for the speculation currently, but the announcement via webcast is still occuring and we are waiting for written announcements from Intel.

For now we will leave you with this video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SB706hhCDZc[/youtube]