InternetThe Secondary Payoff to Intel's Cool Chips
The high-k metal gate breakthrough of early 2007 doesn't just mean cooler desktop and laptop processors. It opened the door to whole new markets for Intel.
Source: Reuters What started as a breakthrough of chemical engineering 17 months ago has resulted in Intel breaking into new territories where it had never been in the past, at least with any success. In January 2007, the company announced a design breakthrough called high-k metal gate, which would allow it to continue shrinking the manufacturing size of its processors while avoiding a heat build-up. Intel co-founder Gordon Moore's infamous 1965 theorem that the number of transistors per square inch would double every 18 months, a.k.a. Moore's Law, had enjoyed a decent, 30-plus year life span, but was in danger of coming to an end. Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) was finding it impossible to shrink its transistors any further using silicon dioxide technology. RELATED ARTICLES IBM to Offer 32nm Manufacturing to All in 2009 Intel Breakthrough Keeps Moore's Law on Track Intel Reveals First Details on Its GPU Entry For more stories on this topic: Semiconductors have what are called gates between their many substrates, and this was becoming a weak spot in the chips. Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) was manufacturing gates literally a few atoms thick. The result was a great deal of voltage leakage. This caused heat and the chip to require a lot of power, since so much was seeping out. The high-k metal gate, made from hafnium oxide, reduced power leakage by more than 100-fold over the older silicon dioxide gates... [ Read more on www.internetnews.com ]
InternetLow cost Internet phone revolution beckons for India (AFP)
AFP - Battle lines are being drawn after India's telecoms regulator called for full-blown telephone services via the Internet, paving the way for another fall in the nation's already cheap call rates.
InternetWill Solid State Drives Go Beyond Enterprise?
Insiders predict a revolution in solid state storage next year.