Intel Produces Tiny, More Powerful Chips

On Wednesday, Intel announced that it had produced the world’s first tiny microchip using new manufacturing methods that will allow the company to make more powerful and efficient processors, Reuters reports.

The dime-sized memory chip contains 1 billion transistors that are less than 50 nanometers wide-a red blood cell is about 1,000 times that size, according to Mark Bohr, a leading Intel engineer.

“It will pack about two times as many transistors per unit area and use less power,” Bohr said.  “It will help future products and platforms deliver improved performance.”

The company is on track to begin shipment of the chips in late 2007, Bohr said. 

Intel produces roughly 80 percent of the processors that drive the world’s vast array of computers.

-Al Sacco