Intel Shrinks Transistor Size By 30%

pinkUZI writes "Intel will announce that it has crammed 500 million transistors on to a single memory chip, shrinking them in size by 30%. " The tech details are sadly lacking in the article - but I'm sure those will follow. Indeed, the Yahoo piece gives the details that "...has created a fully functional 70 megabit memory chip with transistor switches measuring just 35 nanometers."

Comments

Re:Heat

[Ignignot]

It is likely that the new chip doesn't produce any more heat than the old one. It is a very simple effect: smaller transistors require less power to operate. Also, if they did consume the same amount of power in a much smaller space they'd end up as slag, no matter what cooling solution used. This means that if they were to make a current chip using the new 30% smaller technology, the result would probably produce about 30% less heat and use that much less power.

I don't really understand what the big deal is comparing the heat outputs of the P4 and Opteron is anyway, it isn't like these are mobile cpu's. I do have an Athlon 64 under the hood now, but heat output has never been a real concern of mine when selecting a cpu. I'll never understand the processor tribalism that has infected some computer users. Just use what's best for the job.