Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Intel Moving Forward With 10nm, Will Switch Away From Silicon For 7nm

Posted by Soulskill on from the ever-smaller-ever-faster dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Intel has begun talking about its plans for future CPU architectures. The company is already working on a 10nm manufacturing process, and expects the first such chips to be ready by early 2017. Beyond that, things are getting difficult. Intel says it will need to move away from silicon when it develops a 7nm process. "The most likely replacement for silicon is a III-V semiconductor such as indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs), though Intel hasn't provided any specific details yet." Even the current 14nm chips they're making ran into unexpected difficulties. "While Intel didn't provide any specifics, we strongly suspect that we're looking at the arrival of transistors based on III-V semiconductors. III-V semiconductors have higher electron mobility than silicon, which means that they can be fashioned into smaller and faster (as in higher switching speed) transistors."

7 of 279 comments (clear)

  1. To answer your question by ciaran2014 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nope. They've decided to hit 7nm and then call it a day.

    --
    Help build the anti-software-patent wiki
    1. Re:To answer your question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      They've decided to hit 7nm and then call it a day.

      I asked Gordon Moore about this and he said it would be illegal.

    2. Re: To answer your question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      That would be a really tiny computer.....

    3. Re:To answer your question by blackomegax · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah my buddy used to bring home and show off things under NDA that would give competitors an edge too. He got fired.

  2. Re:amazing by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't know if such would make my PC run faster, but it sounds delicious!

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  3. Re:amazing by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Funny

    Silicone? Really incredible - transistors made out of flubber. There is a huge difference between silicon and silicone.

    And if you keep abreast of technology you will know that silicone has more to do with enlargement than miniturisation.

  4. Re:amazing by bloodhawk · · Score: 4, Funny

    many people use silicon to watch silicone so maybe they are more closely related than we think.