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Strained Silicon Chips From Intel

Posted by timothy on from the try-ace-bandages dept.

Quirk writes "NewScientist is reporting... "Intel has taken the wraps off a secret technique it is using'Strained silicon' chips to increase the speed of its Pentium and Centrino chips. The technique boosts the rate at which transistors switch, without having to make them smaller.""

3 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by inode_buddha · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    at least now I could have my silicon pre-strained, instead of having all those Viagara spams do it...

    --
    C|N>K
  2. Compared to AMD...? by leprasmurf · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    I wonder how long it will take for AMD to develop a better technique. Not to mention with AMD's new 64 bit architecture this silicon stressing will really be just to keep up with AMD.

    Doesn't this really just focus on the clock speed of the processor which has already been proven not to be the focal point of performance? Switching faster won't increase the bandwidth, maybe it will just be able to push more through the same amount of space then?

    --
    "And The Geek Shall Inherit The Earth" --Jeff Darlington
  3. Re:Way behind competitors still by MtViewGuy · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I think Intel is secretly working on using diamond material in circuit design which may make possible a quantum leap in speeds for the CPU. Can you say 50 GHz clock speed for a CPU within six years? :-)