Intel plans for faster chips

New production processes for 7GHz chips are shaping up in Intel's labs

Intel has announced that is has built its first sample chips using a new 65 nanometre (nm) process technology, and expects to begin full production in 2005.

The technology makes smaller on-chip components possible, allowing higher clock speeds and greater performance. Intel earlier detailed its processor roadmap for the next two years, which includes plans for multi-core desktop and server chips.

The silicon firm said it has demonstrated a working 4Mbit memory chip built with its 65nm process. Using this technology, 10 million transistors can be made to fit into one square millimetre.

Current Pentium 4 chips are built from a 0.13 micron or 130nm process. The first 90nm processor designs are due to ship early next year.

"This development is important as it shows that we are still tracking Moore's Law [that the number of transistors on a chip will double every two years]," commented Mark Bohr, head of process architecture and integration at Intel.

The 65nm process incorporates key technologies for future processor chips, such as eight layers of copper interconnect, and strained silicon transistors that can operate at higher speeds, said Intel.

The first 65nm chips demonstrate the importance of being an integrated device manufacturer, Bohr added, because Intel benefits from being able to control all aspects of chip production from start to finish.

Bohr declined to comment on the type of processors that Intel might make with the new technology, stating only that it would enable "next-generation" chips. The clock frequency of such chips would not simply depend on the process technology, he added. However, as clock speeds tend to double roughly every two years, this indicates that Intel processors will reach 7GHz during 2005.

Earlier, Intel disclosed that it plans to offer multi-core desktop chips within the same timeframe. Speaking at the firm's autumn analyst meeting in New York, Intel president Paul Otellini said that desktop chips would include this feature, which fits two or more separate processors onto the same piece of silicon, starting from 2005. The architecture will also feature in Intel's Tanglewood processor for servers.

Next year, Intel is set to introduce its first processors made with 90nm technology. Prescott, the successor to the current desktop Pentium 4 chips, is expected to ship early in 2004, followed by Dothan, a new mobile processor for Intel's Centrino platform.

To help it deliver a new process technology every two years, Intel is working on a 45nm process for parts in 2007. Beyond this, the firm will have to move to extreme ultra-violet (EUV) mask technology for a possible 32nm process technology, Bohr said.