Intel Corp says it's found a way to build faster, cheaper communications chips, giving the world's biggest semiconductor maker an advantage in an industry niche it has yet to conquer.
Intel plans to make chips for cell phones and networking gear that combine the zeroes and ones of digital functions with radio and other analog capabilities, said Sean Maloney, executive vice president of Intel's communications group. Previously those two operations had to be carried out on separate chips using different manufacturing methods, which drove up costs.
Intel will combine the new procedure for "mixed signal" chips with a process that uses smaller 90-nanometer circuitry that allows more transistors to be squeezed onto a piece of silicon. It will be the first time a company has joined the two techniques, Maloney said.
"This technology is going to be used to dramatically decrease the cost of optical technologies and wireless technologies," Maloney said. "The communications industry really does jump aboard Moore's law," he said, referring to the maxim named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that holds that chips double in power about every 18 months.
Intel's communications unit had a second-quarter operating loss of US$127 million on sales of US$536 million, compared with an operating loss of US$235 million on revenue of US$635 million a year earlier. CEOCraig Barrett is counting on the unit to fuel growth as personal computer demand levels out, investors have said.
It will be another 12 to 18 months before chips made with the new techniques make their way into network processors and other communications gear, Maloney said.
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