Intel: 45 nanometer up-and-running!

45 nm promises

Intel promises us a lot with the new process; firstly they claim that they can place twice the amount of transistors on a chip, leading to either more energy efficient processors or processors with more features, like a large amount of L2 cache.

The second claim is that processors made on 45 nm will use 30% less power than processors produced on 65nm, agian thi scan lead to two advantages; either the processors become less powerhungry and therefore the systems as well, or a faster chip is possible without using more power than the current 65nm chips.

The last claimis that the new processor will be able to work faster than their predecessors, by as much as 20%. This basically means that a processor on 45m can reach at least 20% higher clockspeeds without any problems.

New materials will ensure lower power leakage in the transistors

Less leakage

When building smaller transistors you will encounter a few problems, the smaller the transistor, the bigger the chance on power leakage. To avoid this from happening INtel uses new materials in their Penrynn processors, the actual transistor gates are made of metal and between the source and drain they have applied a thin layer of high-k material, that reduce this effect siginificantly. It is advanced science and chemistry to try and explain how this will exactly work, however it does mean that future processor will become more and more energy efficient.