New 45nm Chips from Intel
Original Article Date: 2008-01-03
In this article I thought I'd bring you the latest news from Intel, who have once
again broken the size barrier in releasing new Core 2 and Xeon processors built
on 45nm technology. And, for the first time since the 1960s, Intel have changed
the way their transistors "gate" inside their CPUs.
What's in a nanometer?
Intel have just released their new Core 2 and Xeon processors built upon 45nm circuitry.
This is a reduction from the previous generation of processors built on 65nm circuitry.
But when you see "nm" after the number what does it actually mean?
"nm" is short for "nanometer". 45nm, for instance, is 45 x 10-9 meters (0.000,000,045m), or 45 millionths of a millimeter. Micro-circuitry and micro-processors
probably got their name from the fact that they used circuitry etched onto silicon
where the width of the conductive path of each "wire" was measured in microns, or micrometers.
Chip process technology has come so far in the last decade or so, however, that
we are now closer to the nanometer than the micron when it comes to the size of
the conductive path in processor circuitry. The following table shows how the main
"process" (as the method is called when it manufactures chips with the given characteristic
conductive path diameter) has shrunk from 1.5 microns (1,500nm)
in 1982 to only 45nm with the release of today's Intel chips.
|
Year |
Processor |
Process |
|
1982 |
80286 |
1500nm |
|
1986 |
80386 |
1500nm |
|
1989 |
80486 |
800nm |
|
1993 |
Pentium (P5) |
800nm |
|
1994 |
Pentium (P54) |
600nm |
|
1995 |
Pentium (P54CS) |
350nm |
|
1997 |
Pentium II (Klamath) |
350nm |
|
1998 |
Pentium II (Deschutes) |
250nm |
|
1999 |
Pentium III (Katmai) |
250nm |
|
1999 |
Pentium III (Coppermine) |
180nm |
|
2000 |
Pentium 4 (Willamette) |
180nm |
|
2002 |
Pentium 4 (Northwood) / Xeon (Prestonia) |
130nm |
|
2003 |
AMD Opteron (Sledgehammer) |
130nm |
|
2004 |
Pentium 4 (Prescott) / Xeon (Nocona) |
90nm |
|
2005 |
AMD Opteron (Venus/Troy/Athens) |
90nm |
|
2006 |
Core 2 (Conroe) / Xeon (5000/5100/5300 series) |
65nm |
|
2007 |
AMD Opteron (Barcelona) |
65nm |
|
2008 |
Core 2 (Penryn) / Xeon (5400 series) |
45nm |
So perhaps soon we might start using the terms nanocircuitry and nanoprocessor as
it relates to mainstream computing hardware?
What's this "K" all about?
As the size of micro-processor circuitry has reduced, the problem of leakage of
current from one side of a transistor gate to another has increased, due to electrical
field transmission over the smaller "gaps". In order to counteract this problem,
Intel has, for the first time since 1960, changed the material that insulates one
side of their transistors from the other.
Since the invention of the microchip, semiconductor manufacturers have used silicon
dioxide as the insulating material between the two sides of a transistor gate. Now,
with the introduction of the the new 45nm circuitry, Intel has made the shift to
a Hafnium based compound as the insulator. Hafnium, a transition metal similar to
Zirconium, has a peculiarly high "K", which makes it ideal for this application.
"K" is a constant that relates to the permittivity of electrical fields through
a given material, compared to a vacuum. A low-K compound will actually "amplify"
the electrical fields passing through it, whilst a high-K will greatly impede such
fields.
Photo courtesy Intel Corp
So a high-K material like Hafnium aids greatly in the reduction of leakage currents
in transistor gates by impeding the electrical field trying to reach across the
voltage gap.
The New 45nm Xeon 5400 Series CPUs in Systems Now
The reduced process size seems to lead to real-world advantages in performance
and power consumption. Intel have claimed up to 30% higher performance
for most high-performance computing (HPC) applications (5400 series
quad core vs 5300 series quad core, both at 3.0GHz clock speed) and up to 50% higher
performance for optimized applications. Also, Intel have claimed up to 38% higher
performance per watt over an equivalent 5300 series quad core CPU.
45nm Xeon CPUs are now available and can be integrated into our standard line-up
of servers and workstations right now. They are available in 1333MHz and 1600MHz front-side bus, and 80W or 120W versions, with clock speeds from 2.0GHz to 3.20GHz. Low-voltage
50W versions will become available in the next few months. A full list of CPU options
can be found our two
most popular Intel dual-socket server and workstation pages.
As always, if you have any questions about this technology, and how it can relate
to new machines for your business, I'm available to assist you.
Best regards,
Ben Ranson
Chief Systems Engineer