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Intel Keeps Up with Big Blue in Chip Race

In the wake of IBM’s CMOS 9S announcement on Monday, Intel quickly followed suit by unveiling a new recipe for faster chips.

Providing a peek into its future plans, Intel Corp. introduced what it is billing as the world’s fastest and smallest CMOS transistor, a device that it will use to build 10GHz microprocessors in the next five to 10 years. The microprocessors will contain more than 400 million transistors and will operate at less than one volt.

According to Intel, the key to this initiative is that it is able to reduce the dimensions of the transistors, which are just 30 namometers in size and three atomic layers thick. The smaller a transistor is, the faster it operates, and by building faster transistors, Intel will be able to build faster microprocessors.

The new transistors can complete 400 calculations in the blink of an eye and are capable of 0.05-picosecond switching speeds. Intel says the 10GHz chips will make applications such as real-time voice translation a reality. It will also give computers 3D, TV-quality like graphics. – Jim Martin

For more on the chip race between IBM and Intel, see
http://entmag.com/breaknews.asp?ID=3822.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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