Intel chief executive Paul Otellini showed early wafer samples of Intel’s advanced 22-nm process technology at the launch of Intel Developer Forum Sept. 22. He said that the System-on-a-Chip methods developed for the Atom processor will be one of the first to use an even more advanced technology, 15-nm CMOS.
Intel will not only rely on its own chip manufacturing plants to develop new processors using 15-nm technology, he said, but will license this to Taiwan-based TSMC Corp. Intel rarely licenses its technology to other chip companies. The decision to work with TSMC was not due to any concerns about limits in supply or plant closures, Otellini said, but a desire to allow other companies to work with software specialists in developing dedicated spinoffs of Atom SoC architectures.
Intel uses what is called a “tick-tock” design strategy in developing new CPUs. In the “tick” phase, a previous generation of an architecture is moved to a smaller feature size. The server processor known as Nehalem, for example, is ported from 45-nm to 32-nm processes, and will become the Westmere processor, slated for release in late 2009. In the “tock” phase, the same process technology is used, but the architecture is updated. At 32 nm, this will come to life as the Sandybridge processor.
The same tick-tock strategy is used in the Atom family, and has been planned for technologies at 32 nm, 22 nm, and 15 nm. Otellini provided no details of newer generations of Atom, though future integrated platforms are known as Moorestown (45-nm) and Medfield (32-nm). But Otellini said the low-power capabilities at 22 nm and below will allow standby processing speeds in combination with a low standby power that has not been encountered in the industry to date.
Otellini also announced a new Atom Developer Program in which Acer, Asus, and Dell will be involved. It will include an “app store” similar to those developed for iPhone and other platforms. He said that by merging software environments like Adobe Air, and the acquired Wind River real-time environment, with Windows and Moblin OS platforms, Intel Atom could move outside handhelds into applications such as in-vehicle infotainment.
Loring
