"Researchers at Intel have found a better way to insulate circuits, enabling them to save energy as they pack more transistors onto each processor. Intel could start building chips with these new "tri-gate transistors" by 2010, enabling either a 45 percent increase in speed or a 35 percent reduction in total power used, compared to the company's current 65-nanometer process transistors, said Mike Mayberry, director of components research and vice president of Intel's Technology and Manufacturing Group. The advance could be a powerful sales tool, since power efficiency is a crucial marketing metric for chips in PCs ranging from powerful servers to mobile laptops and handheld PDAs."Who doesn't want longer battery life? This is great news, even if we have to wait until 2010 to get them (let's say 2012 to be on the safe side). The insulation problem always been a tricky one, but if this works as well as they say it will, it opens the horizon for CPUs once again.
Intel's Tri-Gate Transistors Cut Power Consumption by 35%
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