Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Intel Promises A Cool Billion (Transistors)

Posted by timothy on from the never-trust-a-schedule-over-30-days-out dept.

NevDull writes: "CNN is reporting that Intel has announced new semiconductor packaging which will lead to CPUs with a billion transistors running at 20GHz within 6 years. Yummy!" The advance here is removing the balls of solder between the chip's packaging and the microprocessor core, which leaves room for more transistors (or a thinner package). Like it says, though, this is years away from your pocket Cray.

5 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. Re:alright .. i'll say it first... by jeffy124 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    alright, so i was the first non-AC to say it

    --
    The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
  2. Ground-breaking, revolutionary news! by mcrbids · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Intel corp. (TM) announced the development of further incremental developments in their processor technology allowing them to adhere to the radical expectations of Moore's law.

    "I feel this is truly a breakthrough.", indicated Ima Prophead, Sr. Product development chairperson. "For years, we've adhered to Moore's law, but now we'll still be able to!".

    In unrelated news, Microsoft Corporation has introduced a new initiative designed to make full use of these 20 Ghz processors, .BLOAT.

    --
    I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
  3. Re:Pocket cray by mach-5 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    The old standby:

    Her: Is that a Cray in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

  4. Thats not surprising at all... by hhe_hee · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I guess that anyone that's heard of Moore's law doesn't be surprised by this. In 1971 Moore published his Law that describes the performance increase for semiconductors and was estimated as an 18 month doubling. You can see a fine graph about this here.

    And a fast calculation (based on a 2GHz intel P4 :):
    6 years = 72 months
    72/18=4
    and 2^4=16GHz
    And 2.1 GHz will give 19.4GHz, which I think they will release before new year or so...

    It is possible that the 18 months would be slightly different, like 20 months, but clearly this trend has continued with little change. But remember that computer performance is strongly influenced by the semiconductor trend but need not be exactly identical.

    --
    2 reptiles beneath your current threshold.
  5. No More than Moore by Muggs+McGinnis · · Score: 0, Redundant

    This is right on track with Moore's Law.

    Intel Promises a Cool Billion (Transistors)

    "SANTA CLARA, California (Reuters) - Intel Corp., the world's largest chipmaker,
    said Monday it's developed new semiconductor packaging technology that will
    allow for microprocessors boasting 1 billion transistors and running at 20
    gigahertz in the next six years.

    "Currently, Intel's Pentium 4 microprocessor -- the primary computing engine of
    personal computers and servers -- has about 42 million transistors and runs at
    two gigahertz."

    Moore's Law:

    Moore predicted that the number of transistors per integrated circuit would
    double every 18 months.