2/4 - Intel late last month announced an important milestone on the road to high-volume production of microprocessors based on Intel's 45nm (nanometer) manufacturing process technology. To put this achievement in perspective, keep in mind that products based on 65nm are brand new. "It is a key first step in the march toward high–volume manufacturing".

Intel appears to have a jump on the competition. The company produced a working 45nm SRAM (static RAM) chip, with both memory cells and logic circuits. "The announcement comes not even one month after the company rolled out its first 65 nm processors".

Many of Intel's competitors are still trying to do on 65nm what Intel has achieved with 45nm. Intel was "first to high volume with 65nm process technology and the first with a working 45nm chip".

The memory cell of a 45nm chip is about half the size of a corresponding 65nm chip. That means that Intel will be able to pack a lot more transistors in the same die area, to increase performance, or Intel could decrease the die size and save more energy. Compared to the current state-of-the-art 65nm technology, 45nm transistors offer the potential of five times less leakage power (electricity that is wasted while transistors are idle) a 20% increase in speed, and a 30% decrease in energy, "while switching on and off at the 45-nanometer level".

While the SRAM is the first working 45nm chip, Intel is also developing geometries even smaller than 45nm—32nm in fact. Intel's goal is to transition to smaller process technologies every two years. Since 65nm made its debut in the second half of '05, Intel hopes to debut 45nm in the second half of '07.

Intel's chief rival AMD employs SOI (silicon on insulator) technology in its microprocessors, a technology that Intel does not take advantage of. While SOI offers certain advantages, "Intel engineers have claimed that SOI risks becoming structurally more fragile as the manufacturing processes use finer linewidths".

The move to 45nm should help microprocessor manufacturers put more features into their chips. Intel and AMD currently ship dual-core processors. Quad-core is just around the corner.