Intel announces milestone in shrinking chips

Intel said it has created a fully functional 70 megabit memory chip with transistor switches measuring just 35 nanometers.

Contradicting fears that the semiconductor industry's pace of development is slowing, Intel Corp announced it has achieved a milestone in shrinking the size of transistors that will power its next-generation chips.

HT Image

The Santa Clara, California-based company said on Sunday it has created a fully functional 70 megabit memory chip with transistor switches measuring just 35 nanometers -- about 30 per cent smaller than those found on today's state-of-the-art chips.

By shrinking the size of the transistors and other features etched into the silicon, more of the tiny devices can be squeezed onto a single chip. As a result, microprocessors become more powerful and memory chips can store more data without growing in size.

"Intel continues to meet the increasing challenges of scaling by innovating with new materials, processes and device structures," said general manager of Intel's Technology and Manufacturing Group, Sunlin Chou.

Intel said products built with its 65-nanometer process technology -- a label that describes the average size of the minuscule chip features -- are on track for delivery in 2005.

If so, it would be in keeping with a famous forecast by Intel founder Gordon Moore, who in the late 1960s predicted the number of transistors on a chip would roughly double every two years.