Intel Touts New Transistors

Intel plans to announce today news of a groundbreaking effort made by the company's scientists in Hillsboro, Oregon at the Silicon Nanoelectronics Workshop in Kyoto, Japan. News of the achievement leaked out to Reuters just two days after an IBM press release detailed an altered form of silicon. Intel has engineered what they claim to be the fastest and smallest transistors ever to be produced.

The chip giant is forecasting the potential to create microprocessors that contain nearly 1 billion transistors running at a clock speed of 20 gigahertz. As chips approach that threshold, the search for a new material to replace silicon continues. Faster processors open a wide range of possibilities to software developers for creating powerful, new solutions.

Current chips generally contain transistors that measure 0.18 microns respectfully. In a stark contrast with the latest technology, Intel's new transistors size in at 0.02 microns. Moore's Law, calculated by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, stipulates that the processing power of silicon chips will increase exponentially. As silicon has been pushed toward its physical limits, developments such as shrinking the size of transistors have extended the validity of Moore's Law.

The new technology will also lead to lower power consumption. Processors built with these transistors will draw less than 1 volt, as compared to the 1.7 volts required today.

Intel predicts that it will continue to make use of silicon until 2007. Even so, the need for an alternative to silicon remains inevitable. Reuters reports that a critical component of the transistors, the silicon dioxide gate, "a layer that prevents the metal on top from short-circuiting out the silicon underneath when current is passed through it to make the transistors function -- are only three atoms thick." Intel's Gerald Marcyk remarked bluntly, "You can't really scale much lower than three atoms thick."

With that type of computing power, software will stand as the only inhibiting factor. Future applications should be able to comprehend vocal commands, as well as recognize a user's handwriting. Computers will soon present intelligent solutions and analysis in order to solve problems. Intel's Marcyk proposes that, "You log on in the morning and [the computer] gives you two or three options: 'Have you thought about doing one of these things? I've done the calculations for you."