IBM to use copper to make faster chips

[Lonnie]

Replacing aluminum, copper cames electrical signals faster while also cutting the
cost of production.

NEW YORK (AP) - IBM has found a way to make computer chips with copper instead of
aluminum, a breakthrough designed to speed up computers and make them more
affordable.
Copper carries electrical signals faster than aluminum, long the industry standard,
but is harder to apply to the silicon surface of each chip.
International Business Machines Corp. plans to announce today that it will start
selling copper chips early next year.
Switching metals could speed a microprocessor up to 40 percent while lowering its
manufacturing cost by up to 30 percent, resulting in computers that think faster and
store more information, it said.
T'he technology will enable chips to operate on less electricity, making them useful
for laptop computers and other battery-operated electronics.
IBM will include the copper in chips that are the tiny brains and storage bins of
computers it sells, as well as in chips it sells to other computer and electronics
makers.
The copper carries signals between the millions of transistors packed into each
thumbnail-size surface.
IBM said its new manufacturing process enables it to make transistors more than 500
times thinner than human hair, or about 30 percent smaller than the circuitry in the
most sophisticated chips now available.
The advance is the latest effort to boost performance of circuits that control the
basic functions of computers and electronics devices.
Last week, Intel Corp. unveiled a way to boost the storage capacity of "flash memory"
chips, the circuitry that lets computers and other devices hold information even when
they're turned off.

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Lonnie

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