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Intel launches first 14-nanometre processor for thin fanless PCs
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Dr. Jai Maharaj
Sep 6, 2014, 3:27:03 PM9/6/14
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Intel launches first 14-nanometre processor for thin fanless PCs
By Leo Kelion
Technology desk editor
BBC News
Friday, September 05, 2014
The Core M is the world's first commercially available
processor with 14nm transistors
Related Stories
o Intel delays production of new chip
o Intel chip microsleeps to save power
o Intel launches Ivy Bridge chips
Intel has launched a generation of processors with the
smallest transistors ever featured in a commercial
product.
The Core M chip is the first in the family of Intel's
next-generation Broadwell processors.
Intel had initially aimed to start delivering them to
computer makers last year.
However, problems manufacturing the 14-nanometre
transistors meant that the first chips were not sent
until July.
The tech offers improved computing power and better
battery life, according to Intel.
The firm has managed to make the physical size of the
Core M 50% smaller and 30% thinner than that of the
equivalent last-generation Haswell chip, which featured
22-nanometre (meaning billionths of a metre) transistors.
The firm said manufacturers would now be able to produce
"razor-thin" fanless tablets - less than 9mm (0.35in)
thick - without having to opt for a less powerful option,
such as a rival ARM-based processor.
HP is one of the first PC makers to take advantage of the
new computer chip
To coincide with Intel's launch at Berlin's IFA tech
conference, several firms - including Acer, Asus, Dell,
HP and Lenovo - unveiled laptop-tablet hybrids featuring
the new processor.
The Core M is intended to be the most basic version of
Broadwell. More powerful releases destined for desktop
PCs and high-end laptops should become available early
next year.
Experts said some manufacturers have had to delay product
launches as a consequence.
But they added that Intel should not have lost business,
because it still had a significant lead over its PC chip
rival AMD when it came to CPU (central processing unit)
development.
"Intel has a year-and-a-half to a two-year advantage over
AMD in processing technology based on announced
products," said Sergis Mushell, research director at the
tech consultancy Gartner.
"Fourteen nanometre is not an easy thing to achieve -
it's an industry first - so it's not the case that Intel
is falling behind the rest of the industry.
"But where the delay is meaningful is the added time to
deliver two-in-one fanless devices, which would have been
very competitive with the [ARM-based] tablets that
impacted sales of PCs."
Broadwell has taken longer to deliver than expected
Intel said it had been a "business decision" to produce
the Core M chips first.
Tick time
According to the company, users should experience 50%
faster computing performance and 40% faster graphics
performance with Core M than a comparable last-generation
chip.
However, applications may not see a matching speed
increase because of the limitations of other components.
Intel said its tests indicated that a system that used to
manage six hours and 20 minutes of video playback before
running out of battery now lasted for more than eight
hours.
Broadwell represents the "tick" in Intel's "tick-tock"
development model, meaning that the major change is the
shrinking of the processor's transistors rather than an
overhaul of its architecture, as was the case with
Haswell.
Transistors are a kind of switch that turns on and off as
quickly as possible to let a computer carry out its
calculations.
According to Moore's Law - an observation by one of
Intel's co-founders - the number of transistors that can
be placed on a chip for the same cost doubles roughly
every two years.
The company acknowledged that it was becoming more
difficult to hit the target.
"Moore's Law is incredibly challenging," said Kirk
Skaugen, Intel's general manager of personal computing.
"Putting billions of transistors on nanometres of silicon
is not something anyone has ever done before.
"It has got harder every generation over the last decade
or few... and I expect it to continue to be very
difficult, but we are confident as we look forward."
He added that one of Intel's key advantages was that it
was the first and only company to shift over to "3D" or
tri-gate technology, which had helped it shrink the
transistors' size.
What are 3D transistors?
Traditional planar chip design (left) and Ivy Bridge's
tri-gate technology (right)
Traditionally transistors have used "flat" planar gates
designed to switch on and off as quickly as possible,
letting the maximum amount of current flow when they are
switched on, and minimum when they are switched off.
The problem is that the smaller the planar gates become,
the more energy leakage occurs unless their switching
speed is compromised.
Intel's solution has been to make the transistors "3D" -
also known as tri-gate - replacing the "2D" gates with
super-thin fins that rise up from the silicon base. Three
gates are wrapped around each fin - two on each side and
the other across the top.
The move was introduced in its Ivy Bridge family of chips
in 2012, for which the distance between the nodes in the
transistor was 22nm.
For reference, a human hair is about 60,000nm in
diameter.
For Broadwell that gap has been shrunk to 14nm, which has
been achieved in part by making the fins taller and
thinner, and spacing them closer together. Since the
revamped fins are more effective, fewer are needed than
before, which also helps save on space.
The tri-gate fins on Broadwell transistors are taller and
closer together than before
The next next-generation
One of the consequences of Broadwell's delay is that its
successor may be fast on its heels.
Intel's chief executive Brian Krzanich confirmed in July
that the first Skylake chips were still set to go on sale
next year, offering further speed gains.
But one expert said that consumers should not put off a
purchase.
"While I don't doubt that Skylake will be an improvement,
I don't think it will be as big as an improvement as what
we're seeing right now going from Haswell to Broadwell,"
said Ryan Smith, editor-in-chief of the hardware news
site AnandTech.
"Furthermore, Intel is being really vague about when
Skylake will arrive.
"There's a pretty good chance it will be towards the
middle to the end of 2015, in which case you're not
waiting just a few months but almost a year."
More on This Story
Related Stories
o Intel delays production of new chip 15 October 2013, Technology
o Intel chip microsleeps to save power 04 June 2013, Technology
o Intel launches Ivy Bridge chips 22 April 2012, Technology
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29066210
More at:
BBC News
http://www.bbc.com
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.jai-maharaj
o o o
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used
for the educational purposes of research and open
discussion. The contents of this post may not have been
authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion
of the poster. The contents are protected by copyright
law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views
expressed by others are not necessarily those of the
poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted
material the use of which may or may not have been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This
material is being made available in efforts to advance
the understanding of environmental, political, human
rights, economic, democratic, scientific, social, and
cultural, etc., issues. It is believed that this
constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the
material on this site is distributed without profit to
those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
the included information for research, comment,
discussion and educational purposes by subscribing to
USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more
information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article
for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Since newsgroup posts are being removed by forgery by one
or more net terrorists, this post may be reposted several
times.
By Leo Kelion
Technology desk editor
BBC News
Friday, September 05, 2014
The Core M is the world's first commercially available
processor with 14nm transistors
Related Stories
o Intel delays production of new chip
o Intel chip microsleeps to save power
o Intel launches Ivy Bridge chips
Intel has launched a generation of processors with the
smallest transistors ever featured in a commercial
product.
The Core M chip is the first in the family of Intel's
next-generation Broadwell processors.
Intel had initially aimed to start delivering them to
computer makers last year.
However, problems manufacturing the 14-nanometre
transistors meant that the first chips were not sent
until July.
The tech offers improved computing power and better
battery life, according to Intel.
The firm has managed to make the physical size of the
Core M 50% smaller and 30% thinner than that of the
equivalent last-generation Haswell chip, which featured
22-nanometre (meaning billionths of a metre) transistors.
The firm said manufacturers would now be able to produce
"razor-thin" fanless tablets - less than 9mm (0.35in)
thick - without having to opt for a less powerful option,
such as a rival ARM-based processor.
HP is one of the first PC makers to take advantage of the
new computer chip
To coincide with Intel's launch at Berlin's IFA tech
conference, several firms - including Acer, Asus, Dell,
HP and Lenovo - unveiled laptop-tablet hybrids featuring
the new processor.
The Core M is intended to be the most basic version of
Broadwell. More powerful releases destined for desktop
PCs and high-end laptops should become available early
next year.
Experts said some manufacturers have had to delay product
launches as a consequence.
But they added that Intel should not have lost business,
because it still had a significant lead over its PC chip
rival AMD when it came to CPU (central processing unit)
development.
"Intel has a year-and-a-half to a two-year advantage over
AMD in processing technology based on announced
products," said Sergis Mushell, research director at the
tech consultancy Gartner.
"Fourteen nanometre is not an easy thing to achieve -
it's an industry first - so it's not the case that Intel
is falling behind the rest of the industry.
"But where the delay is meaningful is the added time to
deliver two-in-one fanless devices, which would have been
very competitive with the [ARM-based] tablets that
impacted sales of PCs."
Broadwell has taken longer to deliver than expected
Intel said it had been a "business decision" to produce
the Core M chips first.
Tick time
According to the company, users should experience 50%
faster computing performance and 40% faster graphics
performance with Core M than a comparable last-generation
chip.
However, applications may not see a matching speed
increase because of the limitations of other components.
Intel said its tests indicated that a system that used to
manage six hours and 20 minutes of video playback before
running out of battery now lasted for more than eight
hours.
Broadwell represents the "tick" in Intel's "tick-tock"
development model, meaning that the major change is the
shrinking of the processor's transistors rather than an
overhaul of its architecture, as was the case with
Haswell.
Transistors are a kind of switch that turns on and off as
quickly as possible to let a computer carry out its
calculations.
According to Moore's Law - an observation by one of
Intel's co-founders - the number of transistors that can
be placed on a chip for the same cost doubles roughly
every two years.
The company acknowledged that it was becoming more
difficult to hit the target.
"Moore's Law is incredibly challenging," said Kirk
Skaugen, Intel's general manager of personal computing.
"Putting billions of transistors on nanometres of silicon
is not something anyone has ever done before.
"It has got harder every generation over the last decade
or few... and I expect it to continue to be very
difficult, but we are confident as we look forward."
He added that one of Intel's key advantages was that it
was the first and only company to shift over to "3D" or
tri-gate technology, which had helped it shrink the
transistors' size.
What are 3D transistors?
Traditional planar chip design (left) and Ivy Bridge's
tri-gate technology (right)
Traditionally transistors have used "flat" planar gates
designed to switch on and off as quickly as possible,
letting the maximum amount of current flow when they are
switched on, and minimum when they are switched off.
The problem is that the smaller the planar gates become,
the more energy leakage occurs unless their switching
speed is compromised.
Intel's solution has been to make the transistors "3D" -
also known as tri-gate - replacing the "2D" gates with
super-thin fins that rise up from the silicon base. Three
gates are wrapped around each fin - two on each side and
the other across the top.
The move was introduced in its Ivy Bridge family of chips
in 2012, for which the distance between the nodes in the
transistor was 22nm.
For reference, a human hair is about 60,000nm in
diameter.
For Broadwell that gap has been shrunk to 14nm, which has
been achieved in part by making the fins taller and
thinner, and spacing them closer together. Since the
revamped fins are more effective, fewer are needed than
before, which also helps save on space.
The tri-gate fins on Broadwell transistors are taller and
closer together than before
The next next-generation
One of the consequences of Broadwell's delay is that its
successor may be fast on its heels.
Intel's chief executive Brian Krzanich confirmed in July
that the first Skylake chips were still set to go on sale
next year, offering further speed gains.
But one expert said that consumers should not put off a
purchase.
"While I don't doubt that Skylake will be an improvement,
I don't think it will be as big as an improvement as what
we're seeing right now going from Haswell to Broadwell,"
said Ryan Smith, editor-in-chief of the hardware news
site AnandTech.
"Furthermore, Intel is being really vague about when
Skylake will arrive.
"There's a pretty good chance it will be towards the
middle to the end of 2015, in which case you're not
waiting just a few months but almost a year."
Related Stories
o Intel delays production of new chip 15 October 2013, Technology
o Intel chip microsleeps to save power 04 June 2013, Technology
o Intel launches Ivy Bridge chips 22 April 2012, Technology
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29066210
More at:
BBC News
http://www.bbc.com
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.jai-maharaj
o o o
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used
for the educational purposes of research and open
discussion. The contents of this post may not have been
authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion
of the poster. The contents are protected by copyright
law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views
expressed by others are not necessarily those of the
poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted
material the use of which may or may not have been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This
material is being made available in efforts to advance
the understanding of environmental, political, human
rights, economic, democratic, scientific, social, and
cultural, etc., issues. It is believed that this
constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the
material on this site is distributed without profit to
those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
the included information for research, comment,
discussion and educational purposes by subscribing to
USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more
information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article
for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Since newsgroup posts are being removed by forgery by one
or more net terrorists, this post may be reposted several
times.
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