Intel Corp fired a pair of technical salvos at smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc on Tuesday, announcing a November launch date for its next generation of chips and showing off its momentum in manufacturing technology.
Chief executive Paul Otellini told a crowd of thousands at the Intel Developer Forum here that the company's next cycle of microprocessors, code-named Penryn, will begin shipping Nov. 12.
Intel's new chips boast a 20 percent performance boost and increased energy efficiency over the previous generation, in part because of advances in chip-making technology that shrinks the size of the circuitry and new materials used inside the transistors to keep energy from escaping.
Energy loss is a major problem when the size of transistors, the building blocks of computer chips, approach the atomic scale.
The average size of the circuitry on Intel's new chips is 45 nanometers wide, or 45 billionths of a meter. Intel says the transistors are small enough that more than 30 million of them could fit onto the head of a pin.
Intel and AMD both make chips with 65-nanometer circuitry, and Intel is racing ahead in the transition to smaller and smaller sizes.
"Intel is cranking on all cylinders," Otellini said in an interview. "We're pushing the technology as fast as we ever have as a company but on a broader front."
Otellini said Intel plans to have 15 new processors based on 45-nanometer technology by the end of the year and another 20 in the first quarter of next year.
AMD spokesman Gary Silcott said on Tuesday that the company is on track to deliver its own chips based on 45-nanometer technology in the middle of next year. AMD has a technology development agreement with IBM Corp.
Otellini also showed off a wafer with test chips that were built on 32-nanometer technology. Those chips won't be made for the mass market until 2009, but Intel's first public unveiling of the technology further highlights its manufacturing lead over AMD.
The chip Otellini showed off contains 1.9 billion transistors and incorporates logic functions as well as a type of memory known as static random access memory, or SRAM.
However, while AMD is racing to catch up to Intel in manufacturing technology, it is already ahead in a key design feature that Intel is now adopting -- a memory controller built directly into the microprocessor.
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
The Philippines yesterday criticized a “high-risk” maneuver by a Chinese vessel near the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in a rare incident involving warships from the two navies. The Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks in the contested South China Sea — has been a flash point between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012. Taiwan also claims the shoal. Monday’s encounter took place approximately 11.8 nautical miles (22km) southeast” of the Scarborough Shoal, the Philippine military said, during ongoing US-Philippine military exercises that Beijing has criticized as destabilizing. “The Chinese frigate BN 554 was
RSS