Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Intel Says Design Innovations Will Aid Chip Performance New York Times; New York, N.Y.; Nov 26, 2001; Barnaby J. Feder; Late Edition (East Coast) C.6 03624331 Semiconductors Product design Innovations Companies: Intel CorpTicker:INTCDuns:04-7897855Sic:3674Sic:334413Sic:334210Sic:334419Sic:334611Sic:511210Sic:3674Sic:334413Sic:334 789-7855 Abstract: Edition: Start Page: ISSN: Subject Terms: Today, Intel will disclose a new structure for high-speed transistors. Unlike many other designs for bolstering speed, Intel's new structure decreases rather than raises power requirements. Intel, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif., said it had also developed new chip materials to reduce power leakage. Intel said that its latest innovations, which it plans to describe in more detail next week at the International Electron Devices meeting in Washington, put it on course to be able to mass-produce microchips with a billion transistors -- 25 times as many as today's Pentium IV chips -- as early as 2007. Intel said that processors made from these transistors would switch data 10 times faster than today's larger components with no increase in power consumption. Intel said that it had developed a new method for depositing materials one atomic layer at a time to create a new insulating layer. The new material, technically known as a high K gate dielectric, has a leakage rate 10,000 times lower than silicon dioxide, Intel said. Full Text: Copyright New York Times Company Nov 26, 2001 Intel plans to announce semiconductor design innovations today that it expects will help it continue doubling the performance of microchips every 18 to 24 months through the end of the decade. Such rapid improvement would extend a trend that is known as Moore's law. It dates back to the 1960's and is named after Gordon Moore, the Intel co-founder who first identified it. Many experts, including Mr. Moore himself, had expected the so-called law to break down long ago as the drive to cram more transistors onto individual chips raised larger and larger challenges in dealing with issues like heat buildup and power consumption. Today, Intel will disclose a new structure for high-speed transistors. Unlike many other designs for bolstering speed, Intel's new structure decreases rather than raises power requirements. Intel, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif., said it had also developed new chip materials to reduce power leakage. As features in transistors shrink to the point that some of them are only a few atoms wide, it becomes harder to prevent electrons from wandering out of the channels in which they are supposed to be confined. Leakage drains batteries prematurely at best; at worst, if transistors are packed closely enough together, it can raise temperatures in chips high enough to destroy them even when they are not in use. Intel said that its latest innovations, which it plans to describe in more detail next week at the International Electron Devices meeting in Washington, put it on course to be able to mass-produce microchips with a billion transistors -- 25 times as many as today's Pentium IV chips -- as early as 2007. Intel said that processors made from these transistors would switch data 10 times faster than today's larger components with no increase in power consumption. Intel predicts that such processors will run, among other things, compact personal computing devices capable of numerous ''real-time'' tasks like processing human speech as it is being uttered. ''It's pretty phenomenal,'' said Dan Hutchinson, president of VLSI Research, a microchip technology market research firm based in San Jose, Calif. ''They've solved some of the electrical problems that looked like brick walls,'' said Mr. Hutchinson, one of a handful of experts Intel briefed in advance on its work. Whether those solutions can be deployed on mass production lines remains to be proven. They will require improvements in several forms of production equipment. The type of transistor most widely used in computing is a microscopic switch in which current flows from a power source to a power drain when voltage is applied to a raised feature between them called a gate. As they have shrunk transistors, chip makers have made sources and drains thinner and thinner. But just as it becomes harder to push water through pipes as they get smaller, electrical current encounters increasing resistance as chip features shrink, requiring designers to apply higher voltages and thus use more power. In one innovation, Intel has been able to enlarge the source and drain by expanding them to rise above the surface of the chip. The new design lowers resistance by 30 percent, Intel said. A second major innovation is a change in the thin layer of insulating material between the gate and the silicon foundation on which it sits. Current designs use silicon dioxide insulators, which become unworkably leaky in the latest high-speed chip designs. Intel said that it had developed a new method for depositing materials one atomic layer at a time to create a new insulating layer. The new material, technically known as a high K gate dielectric, has a leakage rate 10,000 times lower than silicon dioxide, Intel said. A third innovation involves depositing a thin layer of the silicon dioxide insulator on the silicon base of the chip, directly under the source and drain components. That insulation seals off a major path of power leakage from the source to the drain. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.