Intel’s Penryn speeds processing

Intel’s Penryn speeds processing

Our friends at Intel are scheduled to begin production of the next-generation Core 2 processor family. Code named “Penryn”, it is based on 45-nm Hi-k metal gate process technology with microarchitecture enhancements. The processors will have more than 400 million transistors for dual-core versions and more than 800 million in quad-core dress.

Mark Bohr, Intel Senior Fellow, reviewed the technology advances at the recent Microprocessor Forum in San Jose.

The Penryn processors will have higher core and bus clock frequencies, while keeping existing power and thermal envelopes. Desktop and server products will have core speeds greater than 3 GHz. The key to the performance boost is high-k + metal gate transistors.

Thinner gate oxides have been a key to performance boosts up to 90 nm. Between 90 and 65 nm, Intel kept the oxide the same thickness, and it remains about the same for 45 nm, due to exponentially increasing leakage currents. But new gate materials will provide a greater-than-10x reduction in gate oxide leakage along with a choice of >20% improvement in transistor switching speed or greater-than-x reduction in source-drain leakage power.