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Intel Demos 45nm Penryn Processors, Due by end of 2007

NY Times reports on an advance from Intel which is said to represent "the most significant change in the materials used to manufacture silicon chips since Intel pioneered the modern integrated-circuit transistor more than four decades ago."

Intel is moving towards the 45nm manufacturing process and demoed (CNet) 45-nm Penryn chips during a press briefing. The Penryn chips are said to be available "before the end of the year."

Penryn is essentially a shrink of the Core 2 Duo chips, with a few extras like the SSE4 instructions. It's being introduced along with the new manufacturing technology, the "tick" of Intel's plans. Then next year, when the 45-nanometer manufacturing technology is mature, Intel will introduce a new chip microarchitecture code-named Nehalem--the "tock"--with more significant changes to the chip design.

The advances in the manufacturing process include the use of new insulators and new metallic alloy materials in transistor components. Current Intel chips utilize a 65-nm manufacturing process. As always, the move to the smaller processes tends to improve performance and decrease power consumption.

According to this article, the Penryn family of chips will deliver new laptop dual-core microprocessors, a desktop dual-core and a quad-core, and server dual and quad-core processors.

Apple will, of course, benefit from these new processors when they are released, and Intel has stated that the current prototypes are already booting Mac OS X -- indicating that Apple is already involved in early testing.

More technical details: TGDaily and AnandTech

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66 months ago
Now we're talking - power and true power saving!
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66 months ago
I'd bet that Apple will debut these processors in their next generation Laptops and Desktops.
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66 months ago
I don't care about the power savings because I don't think it's significant, but faster is better.
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66 months ago
12 hr battery life on a macbook would be nice.
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66 months ago
let the "should I wait for Penryn chips?" threads begin!! :rolleyes:
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66 months ago
Man, this whole "wait till '08" philosophy of mine is really paying off. I'll get a second revision Penryn/Santa Rosa MacBook with all the goodies.

Gonna destrrooooyyyy my iBook's performance in one fell swoop. Amazing just how good the progress from Intel is - remember the good ol' days of "OMG, 100MHz faster G4s coming soon" rumours.

Now we know what's coming and roughly when and we know the benefits of the new chips are going to make them worth the upgrade price. Even going from a 1.2GHz G4 to a 1.67GHz G4 isn't all that much but going from a 1.2GHz G4 to a 2+ GHz Penryn-based Core 2 Duo for basically the same price as I paid for this iBook is simply amazing.
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66 months ago

let the "should I wait for Penryn chips?" threads begin!! :rolleyes:


Well, should I? :D :p
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66 months ago

Intel has stated that the current prototypes are already booting Mac OS X -- indicating that Apple is already involved in early testing.


Why does that mean Apple is already testing, couldn't it just mean that the architecture isn't radically different so it works on existing versions of OS X. It could just be Intel running OS X.

12 hr battery life on a macbook would be nice.


Yes... that's going to happen :p

let the "should I wait for Penryn chips?" threads begin!! :rolleyes:


I'm never sure what I should be doing. On the one hand I'd love an intel-mac now, or the next revision, or the revision after that with all those other new rumored goodies; on the other hand my PB is working fine for what I do, it's not stressed and there really isn't a reason to upgrade.

I've been saying I'm going to upgrade for 2 years. Another year couldn't hurt, right ?
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66 months ago

Man, this whole "wait till '08" philosophy of mine is really paying off. I'll get a second revision Penryn/Santa Rosa MacBook with all the goodies.



I hope the same!
It seems a bit heavey handed to herald this as the most significant advancement in four decades, can anyone explain how important 45 nm design will be?

Edit : Answer :

For several decades there have been repeated warnings about the impending end of the Moore’s Law pace for chip makers. In response the semiconductor industry has repeatedly found its way around fundamental technical obstacles, inventing techniques that at times seem to defy basic laws of physics.

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66 months ago

I hope the same!
It seems a bit heavey handed to herald this as the most significant advancement in four decades, can anyone explain how important 45 nm design will be?


I'm not sure it's the physical 45nm design but the new materials they're using in creating the chips. The way they've manufactured the stuff could mean advances once thought impossible will now come easily.
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