SAN JOSE, CALIF.-- The days of relying on shrinking transistors to achieve performance gains are over, and the chip industry needs to enter a new era of innovation where system-level features--including dual-core processors--are just as important as thinner transistor gates.
Ever-smaller transistors have enabled chip designers to crank up clock speeds, add more cache memory, and reduce the size of their processors without having to change many features from generation to generation, said IBM's Bernie Meyerson in a keynote address at the Fall Processor Forum Tuesday.
But the advent of 90-nanometer process generation has changed that strategy for most chip makers, said Meyerson, vice president and chief technologist at IBM's Systems and Technology Group. Chips are now so small that atomic-level defects on a silicon chip can cause power leakage up to 100 times the normal level, he said.
_______________
Read More:
yahoo.com
