IBM, Intel pace each other with improved transistors

IBM Corp. and Intel Corp. accelerated their horse race in semiconductors when each unveiled at midnight Saturday Eastern Time similar chip-manufacturing advances.

The research from both companies involves a crucial building block -- called high-k material -- to build smaller, more efficient transistors in microprocessors. High-k materials are better insulators than standard silicon dioxide, allowing engineers to keep shrinking transistors without losing efficiency through leaking electricity.

In both announcements, engineers say they plan to use the material to build transistors that switch on and off better, using "high-k metal gate" technology.

The announcements promise to keep alive Moore's Law, which holds that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every two years. It's good news for users because the more transistors that can be packed on a microprocessor, the faster it runs a PC.

The new materials also mean the manufacturers won't have a problem continuing to etch transistors on chips at microscopic sizes, and more importantly, mass-produce them so they're affordable to PC users. In fact, Intel officials predict this breakthrough alone will ensure Moore's Law thrives "well into the next decade."

The announcements underscore an old industry rivalry, since on its part, IBM worked with Sony Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), Intel's main opponent in the microprocessor market.

Both Intel and AMD say they will use the technology to speed the transition from 65-nanometer chip-building architecture to 45-nm. Intel is due to start in the second half of the year production of the family: a new laptop dual-core microprocessor, a desktop dual-core and a quad-core, and server dual and quad-core processors. It expects to ramp up to full production in three factories by the first half of 2008.

"That would only be the first five of 15 products that we have in development for 45nm," said Kaizad Mistry, manager of the 45-nm program at Intel.

Pressed on when the company would actually begin selling Penryn chips, Intel declined to be more specific.

AMD plans to produce its first 45-nm chips in mid-2008, in the wake of the launch of its first 65-nm product, the quad-core "Barcelona" chip due out in mid-2007, according to AMD spokeswoman Jessica Kaiser. IBM said it plans to sell systems with chips that use the new transistors by the end of 2008, using its manufacturing line in East Fishkill, New York.

Intel insists it has a large lead on all competitors in the progress of shrinking chip features to 45nm.

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