Feb 04
Intel Launches Tukwila, the First Chip to Pack More than Two Billion Transistors
Feb 04, `08 — The first chip to pack more than two billion transistors has been launched by silicon giant Intel. The quad-core chip, known as Tukwila, is designed for high-end servers rather than personal computers.
It operates at speeds of up to 2Ghz, the equivalent of a standard PC chip. A large number of the transistors on the new Intel chip are used for memory. “[It] contains lots off onboard memory and registers which are just a very efficient computer architecture to process data faster. Cache memory holds data to be processed by the chip. The closer it is to the processor, the quicker the data can be crunched.
Intel will also show off a chip designed for ultra-mobile devices, known as Silverthorne. The processor is based on the firms latest transistor technology which contains features just 45 nanometers (billionth of a meter) wide.
Both chips will be shown off at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco.