Intel’s Tinier Circuits in 2011
2.9 billion transistors into an area the size of a fingernail. That’s double the density of the 32nm chips that are currently the cutting edge; most of Intel’s CPUs today are still based on a 45nm process. Generally, the smaller the circuits in a computer chip, the more complex features the chipmaker can integrate into that chip. Small circuits also have the potential to increase the computing speed — but the tradeoff is increased power consumption, heat production, and — with very small circuits — increasingly large challenges in keeping the circuits electrically isolated from one another.
At the company’s developer conference here Tuesday, Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini (above) showed a silicon wafer containing the first working chips built on the technology. The 22nm test circuits include both SRAM memory as well as logic circuits that will be used in future Intel microprocessors. intel_22nm_sram_testchip“We are moving ahead with development of our 22nm manufacturing technology and have built working chips that will pave the way for production of still more powerful and more capable processors,” said Otellini. Moore’s Law, first introduced by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965, postulates that the number of transistors on a cost-effective integrated circuit will double every two years. One way to describe how well transistors are packed is the smallest geometric feature that can be produced on a chip. At 0.092 square microns, the 22nm process based chips contain the smallest SRAM cell used in working circuits ever reported.
