Intel to 'Atomize' 3D transistor tech

Intel will introduce its latest 3D transistor design architecture into servers and client devices, before integrating the framework into its low-powered Atom processor line, according to a company executive.

In a teleconference with regional media Thursday to announce the Trigate 3D transistor structure, Stephen Smith, Intel's vice president and director of netbook and tablet development, said the new framework will be built on the company's upcoming 22nm chips.

Codenamed Ivy Bridge, the 22-nanometer platform is touted to improve performance by 37 percent and consume half the power of its predecessor, the 32nm Sandy Bridge platform. Smith added that the 22nm chips will be included in all of the company's targeted product segments, namely, client devices, servers and low-power devices.

He said samples of Ivy Bridge had been sent to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to allow them to manufacture products based on the new architecture when the chips are available. He added that client devices running Ivy Bridge are expected to be released "in volume" next year.

The 22nm platform is also part of Intel's data center strategy, he said. "Ivy Bridge core will be used in a significant fraction of our data center roadmap and 22nm in other designs of the data center," he explained.

The new platform "can make a difference" for data center managers who are increasingly energy-conscious, noted Smith. "Increasingly, data centers have tens of thousands of servers, and the infrastructure for power and cooling becomes a significant part of the cost of [operating] data centers," he said.

The first server line to be refreshed will be the Xeon E3 entry-level servers, he revealed. Intel will then introduce Ivy Bridge in its Xeon 5600 and E7 series, he added.

Aside from Xeon-based servers, the chipmaker will also be refreshing its Itanium-based and MIC co-processor-based products with the 22nm technology, he said, reiterating how the 22nm technology is able to pack more performance in the same thermal and energy envelope.

ARM lower power a "myth"
Smith noted that the 22nm platform will also be integrated into the company's Atom-based processors which were designed to target the low-power device segment, such as consumer electronics, tablets and smartphones. Intel's fourth generation of Atom processors will use the 22nm platform but the executive did not reveal further details on when these will be available.

In a previous ZDNet Asia report, analysts noted that Intel will face stiff competition from ARM in the tablet segment and closely monitor its chipset's performance, processing capabilities and power consumption.

Smith, however, dispelled what he said was "a common myth" that ARM was lower powered than Intel's architecture. "That's not really true from a fundamental perspective, it's simply a matter of design points," he said.

Before Intel unveiled Atom chips, it had focused on designing processors for PCs which typically needed power levels of 30 watt, and above, he explained. With the introduction of Atom, the company started designing low-power chipsets, he said.

The first generation of Atom chipsets achieved 10 times reduction in thermal power and was within the envelope for tablet designs, said Smith. The second generation saw a reduction of 50 times in platform idle power, which he said proved the "underlying silicon has performance and power capabilities, and are very well matched to the ARM competition".

Third-generation 32nm Atom products, expected to be out this year, will feature better performance per watt, he added. For the fourth generation of 22nm Atom chipsets, Intel will be able to take advantage of the two-fold lower active power, he added.

"We'll be able to move from a 'competitive position' today in performance power and idle power, to a 'leadership position' by the time we get to our 22nm system-on-a-chip products," Smith said.