Gregory Quirk
Semiconductor Insights

This Insight Report analyzes Intel's 45nm Penryn processor in detail. The device is an engineering milestone, with a small process lithography and high K gate dielectrics. Intel claims this can deliver more than a 20 percent increase in transistor switching speed, and reduce transistor gate leakage by over 10 times. While the processor has more than 410 million transistors—which is about twice the density of the previous generation—it is just over 30 percent smaller, and has up to a 50 percent larger L2 cache, as well as improved energy efficiency.