Intel and IBM both announce chip breakthrough

In similar but separate announcements over the weekend, both Intel and IBM announced what some are calling the biggest breakthrough in computer chip design since the 1960s.

As chips get ever smaller, down past the current 65nm level, the problem is that the silicon dioxide used to insulate and control the flow of electrons to the transistors has to be made so thin it leads to increased energy leakage and unnecessary heat generation, thus making the chips much less efficient.

Now both Intel and IBM are planning to use a new material they're calling 'high-k' which is metallic rather than based on silicon. It offers better insulation and less leakage and so enables the chip manufacturers to keep shrinking transistors and fitting more onto each chip.

This all translates to me and you into smaller, faster, more efficient and cooler, next generation 45nm chips which will ensure that Moore's law of doubling the number of transistors on a chip every 24 months continues for the next few years at least.

Intel will begin production of their new 'Penryn' chip based on the new 45nm process later this year and IBM will follow in 2008.