Sunday, August 24, 2008

Smaller transistors pack the performance punch

Intel's had the world's first viable 45nm processors in-house since early January 2007—the first of fifteen 45nm processor products in development. With one of the biggest advancements in fundamental transistor design in 40 years, Intel 45nm high-k silicon technology can deliver more than a 20 percent improvement in transistor switching speed, and reduce transistor gate leakage by over 10 fold.

Innovation That Breaks the Performance Barrier

Intel® 45nm high-k metal gate silicon technology is the next-generation Intel® Core™ microarchitecture. With roughly twice the density of Intel® 65nm technology, Intel's 45nm packs about double the number of transistors into the same silicon space. That's more than 400 million transistors for dual-core processors and more than 800 million for quad-core. Intel's 45nm technology enables great performance leaps, up to 50-percent larger L2 cache, and new levels of breakthrough energy efficiency.