Robert Scoble has a fascinating tour inside Intel’s new 45 nanometer fab in Hillsboro, Oregon. Intel Senior Fellow, Mark Bohr gave Bob a rare look inside Intel’s newest fab (inside D1D), that’ll make processors you’ll be buying in computers later this year.
In this tour you’ll see workers putting on their “bunny suits”, hear why cleanliness is so important, and hear what these new chips will do.
Mark claims this fab puts Intel one to two years ahead of its competitors. Why is that? Because they are getting rid of Silicon Dioxide dielectrics.
What does that mean? Well, watch the video and you’ll see the secret to Intel’s new 45 nanometer chips.
Wikipedia, has a good page on High-K dielectrics, which is what Intel s moving to, in order to make processors generate less heat, take less power, all while having more transistors than last year’s designs. Intel has the world’s first High-K metal gate architecture and it’s all due to this fab.
Thanks to Intel for giving me a great look behind the scenes here. What does this mean for you? These chips will bring you about 20 percent more performance.
Scoble shows how engaging tech podcasting can be and Mark Bohr is a great guide.
The NY Times has more on Intel’s new process.
UPDATE: Valley Wag has a different take:
Intel is a client of Podtech, the tech news show that employs Scoble, and, he now admits, the company paid a fee for the “professional” video. Unbelievable. The hypocrisy of bloggers, so quick to accuse reporters of conflicts of interest and so blind to their own, is nothing new…
It turns out that Intel paid a fee to PodTech.net, not for Scoble’s video, but for the NPR-style video produced by Jason Lopez. Scoble wrote a blog post last night praising the Lopez video, and noted that it was “produced with Intel.”
