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SAN FRANCISCO - Intel Corp said on Tuesday it would be able to mass-produce computer processors with features one-third smaller than the current cutting edge within two years, placing it well at the front of the semiconductor industry.
The world's largest chipmaker is now moving its technology to 45 nanometres and has for the first time demonstrated working processors based on 32-nanometre technology, said Chief Executive Paul Otellini.
A nanometre is one-billionth of a metre and is used to measure the width of circuits on a chip. Intel, which makes the processors that power about 80 per cent of personal computers, now uses 65-nanometre circuitry.
Since stumbling in 2005 and losing market share to its rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Intel in the middle of last year rolled out new chips with a new design that have propelled it back into the technology lead, analysts said. Now, having shown it can produce working 32-nanometre chips, Intel has demonstrated that its 'tick-tock' strategy is on pace, if not ahead of internal plans.
Smaller sizes allow more circuits to be crammed on a chip, boosting performance of the devices and driving up profits at chipmakers by letting them make more semiconductors from a single platter of silicon. Intel would introduce its 45-nanometre-based processors, code-named Penryn, on Nov 12. It had previously said it would launch the products by the end of 2007.
He also said that its next-generation design, code-named Nehalem, is complete. On stage at the company's annual technical conference, he had demonstrated a computer that was using a pre-production Nehalem microprocessor.
At a press conference following his keynote, Mr Otellini said that Intel is now revving up two chipmaking plants using 45-nanometre chipmaking technology and said its use of the element hafnium, among other ground-breaking changes in chipmaking, should keep it well ahead of rivals.
End of Moore's law?
Gordon Moore, the unassuming billionaire co-founder of Intel Corp, says the end of the technology maxim bearing his name is drawing to a close, perhaps as soon as 10 years from now.
Moore's Law - based on the San Francisco native's observation in 1965 that the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles roughly every two years - has for more than 40 years dictated the pace of change in the technology industry.
To be sure, many, including Moore himself, have predicted the law's demise numerous times before. But, now, as Intel and the rest of the industry have made features on chips so small, they're running out of space to cram in more transistors and bumping against the laws of physics.
'Another decade, a decade and a half, I think we'll hit something fairly fundamental' that would render the continuing pace of Moore's law untenable, he said on Tuesday at Intel's twice-annual technical conference, now in its 10th year. -- REUTERS
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