Intel unveils Penryn line-up

Chip giant Intel has unveiled its latest processors made with new techniques that can etch circuitry nearly 200 times smaller than a red blood cell.

The chips are the first in the world to be mass-produced with a 45nm process, codenamed Penryn, which is about one-third smaller than current 65nm technology.

"The intellects, physics and designs that went into solving one of the industry's most daunting challenges are awe-inspiring and I congratulate the Intel teams for this breakthrough achievement," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and chief executive.

"Best yet, this feat, coupled with our industry-leading architectures, means faster and sleeker computers, longer battery life and better energy efficiency. Our objective is to bring consumers a new class of computers delivering a full Internet experience in ever-smaller, more portable form factors."

Today's milestone unveiling was confirmed at the company's recent developer forum in San Francisco (IDF) where Otellini said the initial launch would focus on servers and high end desktops, with follow up launches in the first quarter of next year.

At the time, he also claimed that the Penryn ecosystem was thriving, with industry partners having more than 750 Penryn-based system designs in the pipeline as of September.

Penryn chips use a new kind of transistor, the basic building block of microchips, that Intel unveiled earlier this year in what was hailed as one of the industry's biggest advances in four decades.

Penryn is the 'tick' in Intel's 'tick-tock' strategy of shrinking an existing chip design to a smaller size, then following up the next year with an all-new blueprint, known as a microarchitecture.

"They are taking a successful product and making it smaller, and in the process of making it smaller, it gets faster," said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst of consultant Insight 64.

Brookwood said he reckoned the new chips, to be sold under Intel's Xeon and Core 2 brands, would be able to run most software up to 15 per cent faster.

Just last month, Intel started production in its new $3 billion, high-volume 45nm production facility in Arizona.

The 45nm shift is important to the chip giant because it means the company can make more chips from a single platter of silicon, boosting productivity and helping recoup investment on factories.

The company expects to make the majority of its processors on 45nm by the middle of 2008, mirroring the progress of its 65 nm products, according to Tom Kilroy, general manager of Intel's enterprise group.

"We feel this tick-tock model is on track and our cadences allow us to ramp pretty fast," he said.

It cements Intel's manufacturing lead over rival AMD which only started making chips on 65 nm earlier this year but plans to try to roll out 45nm technology in 2008.

Intel will initially sell a dozen versions of the chips for server computers that power corporate networks, with prices ranging from $177 to $1,279. A version for high-end consumers such as gaming enthusiasts will sell for $999.

(Additional reporting by Maggie Holland, IT PRO)

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