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Having got over the excitement of Core i7 (Nehalem), it's clearly time to start thinking about the next 'tick' in Intel's development cycle. That tick is a move from the current 45nm manufacturing process introduced with Penryn to 32nm, the development cycle of which Intel has announced the completion of.

That means that we should see 32nm (codenamed Westmere for the interested) CPUs in Q4 2009, right on schedule with Intel's predictions. Intel plans to serve up a plethora of information about its 32nm process tech at the International Electron Devices meeting (IEDM) next week.

I, for one, cannot wait to hear Intel's development team " describe a logic technology that incorporates second-generation high-k + metal gate technology, 193nm immersion lithography for critical patterning layers and enhanced transistor strain techniques." Daunting terminology aside, performance and energy efficiency improvements which, according to Intel, means "Intel's manufacturing process has the highest transistor performance and the highest transistor density of any reported 32nm technology in the industry."

The end result of 32nm for consumers should be cooler, cheaper, faster and less power hungry processors. Hardly to be sniffed at.

Next stop? 22nm of course!

Link:
Intel.

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