Intel Core M, a new production process that allows the chip-maker to eschew a cooling fan due to the chip’s thinness, is soon to make its debut after a six month delay caused by technical problems in the manufacturing stage.
Rani Borkar, a vice president in Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)’s platform engineering group, made some massive statements with the announcement today that included the fact that hardware designers could begin offering twice the battery life with batteries half the size of current models based on the design called Broadwell. She also suggested the chip could allow users seven times the performance on graphics related tasks whilst doubling performance for conventional computing.
Intel’s tablet coming for Christmas
Holiday tablet buyers should see a handful of devices with this new chip available in stores, but it will be early 2015 when a range of manufacturers begin offering Broadwell chips with circuitry measured at just 14 billionth of a meter (14 nanometers).
This is the second production run for Intel with what the industry calls FinFETs, a kind of three-dimensional structure that differs from the conventional design of earlier transistors. Intel began with this process in 2011 with 22-nonomerter processors. Intel never fully explained the delays nor the engineering issues it was having that delayed this chip and began disproving Moore’s Law. Moore’s Law, named after Intel’s co-founder, dictates that the number of chips on a chip doubles every two years but has slowed including with regards to Intel.
Au contraire
However, Mark Bohr, a senior Intel fellow who helps direct development of its production process, would take argument with that last paragraph.
“Fourteen nanometer does deliver on the promise of Moore’s Law,” Mr. Bohr said stressing the transition to 14-nanometer is going considerably smoother than the shift to 22-nanometer chips despite the delays.
The new chips will focus on tablets and smartphones but ultimately will be embraced for PC and large server systems, something that Intel will probably speak to in September when it hosts its annual conference and gives us additional insight into 14-nanometer processing and production.
