Intel plans 32nm processors for 2009

Intel will move to 32nm processors in 2009, and is investigating the use of carbon nanotubes to replace transistors as it designs the smaller multi-core processors expected at regular two year intervals in the future.

Currently, Intel is in the process of moving from 90nm to 65nm processors, with all its new chips – Conroe, Merom and Woodcrest – being built to the size from later this year. Early next year it will introduce 45nm processors, and at that point double the cores in a processor from two to four.

Each time it reduces the die size, the number of cores will double, said Intel. After it has introduced 32nm CPUs, it hopes to move over to 22nm die in 2011, with 11nm in 2013. A spokesman for Intel said the company had transistors in its laboratories at those sizes, but the difficulty it was facing was how to make them.

The new 45nm CPUs double the transistor density, putting over one billion of them on a single die. The continual reduction of the wafer means that eventually the transistors cannot be shrunk any further and efficiently move the electrons around.

So it is investigating a range of alternative technologies to replace the transistor in future, including tri-gate and 3D transistors and carbon nanotubes. Intel's interest is in part because improving switching speeds by 20 per cent has a profound effect on the performance of a processor.

Carbon nanotubes have been around since 1991, but were not fully investigated until 10 years later. Now Intel believes they have the potential to solve the problem of producing conductive materials on smaller die. This is because they are a single molecule tube that is very conductive.

Paolo Gargini, who heads up silicon research at Intel, said progress was happening, with their conduction already rising from 70 per cent to 95 per cent. He said the technology was on track for release between 2012 and 2015.

By which time, in theory Intel could be producing processors with 64 cores on a single die.