Intel demos first 22nm silicon

Posted on 22 Sep 2009 at 20:37

Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini demoed the world's first working 22nm silicon during the opening keynote at this year's Intel Developer Forum.

Keeping with tradition, Otellini held up a 22nm wafer containing SRAM memory and logic circuits that will be used in future Intel CPUs.

"At Intel, Moore's Law is alive and thriving," Otellini said. "We've begun production of the world's first 32nm microprocessor, which is also the first high-performance processor to integrate graphics with the CPU. At the same time, we're already moving ahead with development of our 22nm manufacturing technology and have built working chips that will pave the way for production of still more powerful and more capable processors."

The 22nm wafer that Otellini showed off is made up of multiple dies about the size of a fingernail; they contain 364 million bits of SRAM memory and more than 2.9 billion transistors. Additionally, Otellini said that the chips use the smallest SRAM cell used in working circuits ever reported at .092 square microns.

Intel expects to ship products based on its 22nm process in 2011.

Author: Tim Smalley in San Francisco

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